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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




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. ♦ . ^be IRew Century . . . 

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a /iRentor for Ibome Xife in Bll Hts ipbase^; 
a Cbronicle ot tbe {progress ot Bmerlca anD 
tbe THaorlD ; a CompenDtum of tbe IRation's 
Greatest Cft^; anD a ©uiDe for tbe (3reat 
Brm^ of 1bome*3i3uilDer6 







IWew l^or??: Baton «J^ /iRalns 
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Library of Confrrese 

Two Copies RcrEivFo 
FEB 16 1901 

Copynghl .nlrjr 

SECOND COPY 



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Copyright by 

EATON & MAINS, 

1900. 



preface 



T N the preparation of this book the one thought 
ever kept uppermost has been the desire 
to be helpful. The knowledge that the volume 
is to go into many thousands of the best Ameri- 
can homes has carried with it a feeling of re- 
sponsibility that has not lightened the labor, but 
has strengthened the purpose by its assurance 
of a greater opportunity to be of service. 

No effort at ornamental writing has been 
made. The temptation to stray from the linos, 
of a plain, practical setting forth of facts and 
ideas has been steadily resisted as inconsistent 
with the object of the work. 

If the pages of this book shall carry help and 
encouragement to any of the great army of 
home-builders for whom it is written, the anx- 
ious care and toil expended upon it will have 
had their ample reward. 



Unbey 



Page 

Happiness in the Home 11 

Be Cheerful 12 

Be Considerate 14 

Be Courteous 15 

Be Patient 16 

Be Helpful 18 

Be Truthful 19 

Be Neat 20 

Be Clean in Language. 20 

Be Contented 21 

Be Generous 22 

Be Polite 23 

Be Economical 24 

Be Temperate 27 

Study in the Home 31 

Books in the Home — 34 

Collecting a Library. . . 35 

What and How to Read 36 

Reading for Children. . 41 

Enemies of Books 43 

Newspapers 44 

Conversation in the 

Home 46 

" Talking Shop " at 

Home 47 

How to Talk Well 48 

Exercise in the Home 49 

Early MorningExercise 49 

Outdoor Exercise 50 

GymnasiumsintheHome 52 

Homemade Apparatus 53 

Exercise for Girls 53 

To Live a Century 55 

Fresh Air in the Home 57 

Breathing Properly 57 

Airing the House 58 

Let in Sunlight 58 



Page 

Rest in the Home 60 

Children in the Home 62 

Let Them be Children. 63 

Play in the Open Air. . 64 
Helping in Household 

Duties 64 

FaultsandPunishments 66 
Rudenessof Speech and 

Manner 67 

The Nursery in the 

Home 69 

How to Furnish it . . . 70 

Ventilation and Air ... 72 
To Insure Refreshing 

Sleep 73 

Nursery Medicine Chest 74 
Amusements for the 

Little Ones 76 

Simple Pleasures Best. 76 
Playing and Learning.. 77 
Suggestions for Amuse- 
ments. 78 

Furnishing the Home. 80 

Woman's Mission. . . , . 80 

Art in the Home 81 

What Furniture to Buy 82 
Pictures and Bric-a-brac 85 
Substitutes for Closets 86 
Mechanics IN THE Home 87 
Use of Ordinary Tools. 88 
Homemade Furnish- 
ings 89 

Furniture from Boxes 

and Barrels 92 

Wood Carving for Boys 94 

Building A Home 95 

Start Right 95 

5 



Index 



rage 
Landscape and Envi- 
ronment 0() 

Standing by Plans 97 

Danger in Novelties. . . i>8 

Buikl to Last iH) 

Keeping in Repair 100 

Interior Finish 101 

In the Cellar 102 

Bath and Toilet Rooms 103 
"Hospital Room".... 105 

Bedrooms 106 

Plnmbing 107 

Water Supply 108 

Bi ii^i^iNG AND Loan As- 
sociations 110 

Their Purpose and Ex- 
tent Ill 

Cooperation Their 

Foundation Principle 112 
Method of Organization li:^ 
Paying for a House — 115 
Dangers and Safe- 
guards 117 

Dkess in tue Home 119 

Selecting a "Wardrobe . 119 
Dressing Becomingly.. 120 
How to>ack Clothing. 122 
PreparingfortheDress- 

maker 124 

Sewing in the Home.. 125 
An Art to be Cultivated 126 
Requisites for Home 

Sewing 127 

Stitches Illustrated 128 

Buttonholes and But- 
tons 135 

CROCnETlNGINTHBlIOME 139 

How to Make Various 

Stitches 139 

To Make a Circular 

Shawl 143 

Knitting in tue Home 145 
"Casting On" the Yarn 145 

How to Knit 146 

WashingKnittedGoods 149 
Embroidery in tue 

Home 150 

Fitness of Things 150 



Page 
Best Colors to Use — 151 
Tulle, Velvet, and Sa- 

brina Work 152 

Plants and Flowers in 

TUE Home 155 

Making a Window Gar- 
den 156 

Best Plants and Soils.. 168 
Outdoor Window Gar- 
dens 159 

Beautifying City Yards 164 

Watering Plants 165 

Constructing a Green- 
house 167 

To Make a Home Fern- 
ery 168 

Making a Rockery 169 

Outdoor Flower Beds.. 170 
Care of Potted Plants.. 171 

Growing Palms 172 

Raising Rubber Plants. 173 
Homemade Insecti- 
cides 174 

Keeping Violets Fresh. 175 
Obtaining Perfumes. . . 176 

Birds in the Home 177 

Best Varieties of Cana- 
ries 177 

Educating the Canary. 178 

Best Cages 178 

Food for the Canary . . 180 

Baths 181 

Canary Diseases and 

Treatment 182 

Getting Rid of Insects. 185 

Mocking Birds 186 

Parrots 187 

Economic Value of 

Birds 188 

Their Vast Aid to 

Farmers 189 

Goldfish in the Home 191 
How to Make an Aqua- 
rium 191 

Care of Goldfish 192 

Goldfish Diseases 193 

Candy in the Home... 194 
Candy as a Food 194 



Index 



Page 
To Detect Impure 

Candy 190 

MakingCandyatHome 197 

Boiling the Sugar 198 

Preparing Fondant. ... 199 

Molasses Candy 201 

Fudge 203 

Chocolate Caramels. . . 204 

Peanut Thin 200 

Popcorn Balls 206 

Popcorn Cakes 207 

Sugared Popcorn ,, 207 

Honey Popcorn 207 

Cream Walnuts 208 

Cream Dates 208 

Stuffed Dates 208 

Chocolate Cream Drops 208 

Cream Candy 20(j 

Cocoanut Candy 209 

Butter Scotch 210 

Taffy 210 

Turkish Delight 210 

White Candy 211 

Fig Candy 211 

Fruit Glace 212 

Ice Cream in the Home 213 
Use and Care of the 

Freezer 213 

Vanilla Ice Cream 214 

Caramel Ice Cream. . . . 215 
Peach or Banana Ice 

Cream 215 

Lemon Ice Cream 215 

Coffee Ice Cream 216 

Creamless Ice Cream. . 216 

Cream Ice 217 

Lemon Sherbet 217 

Lemon and Other Ices. 218 

Mousse 218 

Maple Mousse .' .' 218 

Cooling Drinks in the 

Home 219 

To Can Fruit Juices'. .* .* 219 

Egg Lemonade 220 

Pineapple Lemonade. . 22f) 

Raspberry Drink 220 

Orangeade 221 

Portable Lemonade,*.'.* 221 



Page 
Pastimes in the Home 222 
Their Place in Home 

Life 222 

Benefit to Parents 223 

Games for Exercises . . 224 

Jenkins Up 225 

"It" 227 

Characteristics 227 

Eyes and Nose 228 

Mixed Flowers 229 

Candle Hide and Seek. 229 

(xymkhana Race 229 

Memory 230 

Five Senses 331 

Egg Football 232 

Candle Duel 233 

Hunt the Penny 233 

Geography 234 

Hat Toss 234 

Pictures and Poems. . . 235 

Prince's Feather 236 

Illness in the Home.. 238 
When to Call the Doctor 238 
Keeping a Medicine 

Chest 239 

The Sick Room 239 

Its Location, Air, and 

Furnishings 240 

How to Change Bed 

Clothing 243 

Isolation in Contagious 

Diseases 245 

Disinfectants and Their 

Use 246 

Food for the Sick 247 

How to Serve It 248 

Qualities of Foods 249 

Water, Tea, and Coffee 250 
Jellies and How to 

Make Them 250 

Broths 251 

Barley Water 251 

Rice Milk 252 

Flaxseed Tea 2.52 

Oatmeal Gruel 252 

Poultices 252 

B pro RE THE Doctor 

C9>ISS ••::,,,, 255 



Index 



Page 
Learn What to Do ... . 256 
First Aid to the In- 
jured 256 

Fainting 257 

Burns and Scalds 258 

Shock 259 

Bruises 260 

Cuts 260 

Ragged Wounds 262 

Severed Limbs 262 

Broken Bones 262 

Broken Leg or Arm — 263 

Broken Forearm 265 

Broken Collar Bone . . . 265 

Broken Ribs 266 

Broken Jaw 266 

Broken Skull 266 

Dislocation of Finger.. 266 

Dislocated Jaw 267 

Dislocated Shoulder. . . 267 

Sprains 268 

Choking 268 

Obstructions in the 

Nose 270 

Bodies in the Ear 270 

Cinders in the Eye 270 

Snake-bites 271 

Dog-bites 272 

Stings 273 

Sunstroke 273 

Frost-bite 274 

Drowning 275 

Suffocation 280 

Concussion of theBraiu 281 

Unconsciousness 281 

Convulsions 282 

Croup 283 

Nosebleed 283 

Poisons and Their An- 
tidotes 284 

Treatment of Poisoned 

Persons 284 

Learning Another 

Language 289 

Studying Abroad 290 

Studying at Home 291 

"Short Aids." 292 

Teaching ^ Cbjld. 295 



Page 
Travel at Home and 

Abroad 296 

Comfort in Traveling. , 296 
Selection of Baggage . . 298 

What to Carry 298 

Women at Hotels 300 

Chaperones for Stran- 
gers 300 

Requisites for Going 

Abroad 301 

Tips on Steamships 303 

Where to Go 305 

Purchase of Tickets. . . 306 
To Make the Most of 

Travel 306 

Farm, Village, andCity 

Life 308 

Making Life Valuable. 309 
How to Enjoy Farm 

Life 309 

Reading and Travel ... 310 
Intimacy in Village Life 311 
Gossip and its Dan- 
gers 312 

Avoiding Provincial- 
ism 313 

Nervousness of City 

Life 314 

Competition and Health 314 
Need of Self-restraint. 315 
Keeping Up Ambition. 317 
Benefit of Observation. 318 
Forming Friendships. . 318 
Achievements of the 

Century 320 

Electricity 321 

Railways 321 

Telegraph and Cables . 323 
Telephone, Phono- 
graph, and Kineto- 

scope 324 

Automobiles 325 

Wireless Telegraphy . . 327 

Liquid Air 329 

Submarine Navigation 330 
Navigation of the Air . 330 
Achievements in Medi- 
cine and Surgery .... 331 

8 



Index 



Page 
Extension of Repub- 
lican Ideas 333 

Arbitration 333 

National Growth in 

THE Century 335 

Increase of National 

Area 335 

Growth of Population. 336 
Admission of States. . . 337 
TheLouisiana Purchase 338 
Acquisition of Florida. 339 

Texas 340 

The Gadsden Purchase 341 

Alaska 341 

Annexation of Hawaii. 342 

The Philippines ... 344 

Porto Rico 344 

Guam 344 

Wake Island 347 

Tutuila 348 

National Wealth, 
Manufactures, and 

Products 349 

The Nation's Greatest 

City 351 

New York's Dimen- 
sions 351 



Page 
Boroughs and General 

Government 352 

Wealth and Expendi- 
tures 354 

City Employees 355 

Police, National Guard, 

and Firemen 356 

Underground Railway. 357 
Elevated and Surface 

Rapid Transit 358 

Bridges 359 

Driveways 361 

Parks 362 

Libraries 363 

Water-supply System.. 364 
Harbor and Water 

Front 365 

Churches 366 

Schools 366 

Banks 367 

Charities 368 

Hotels and Clubs 369 

Feeding the Multitudes 370 
How to See New York 

in One Day 372 

Trips for other Davs . . 381 
Beginnings of Things. 384 



Xi6t of 1IUu6tration0 



Drawing-room, Haveraeyer Mansion, 

Frontispiece 

The Governor's Home, Albany, N. Y., 

Facing page 80 

Cottages Erected on Cooperative Plan, 

Facing page 110 

Bedroom, Residence Miss Helen Gould, 

New York. Facing page 160 

Drawing-room, Residence Miss Helen 

Gould, New York. Facing page 176 

Vanderbilt Residence, New York. 

Facing page 208 

Main Hall, Astor Mansion, New York, 

Facing page 240 

Bedroom, Havemeyer Mansion, New 

York. Facing page 272 

10 



THE NEW 
CENTURY HOME BOOK 



Ibappineee in tbe Ibome 

"THERE are fifteen million homes in the 

United States. There ought not to be one 

unhappy home. Every one of these millions of 

homes can be made happy and kept happy. 

Right living will do it. 

An earnest desire to make home happy, 

coupled with an earnest effort to carry out that 

desire, is as certain to help bring happiness into 

the home as day is to follow night. The very 

effort to give pleasure to those around us gives 

pleasure to ourselves. Nothing brings so sure 

and so great a reward as to try to make others 

happy. The family in which each member is 

striving to make his companions happy can 

never be other than happy. 

11 



The New Century Home Book 

No home can be ideal in which the true spirit 
of Christianity has no placd. Each member of 
the household must be animated with the ear- 
nest desire to be helpful, kind, considerate to all 
the loved ones in the family. Where there is 
true mutual affection, where each seeks to share 
the others' burdens, and thus lightens them, 
where all — husband, wife, father, mother, 
brothers, and sisters — are united in love and 
sympathy — that is where the ideal home is 
found. It matters not whether it be in a palace 
or a cottage, whether it be blessed with abun- 
dance or burdened with deep poverty, the home 
in which piety dwells is the real ideal American 
home. 

It is not a hard thing to do — to make one's 

home happy. 

Be Cheerful. 

Fortunate is the one who can see the bright 

side of things, the silver lining that belongs 

to every cloud. That the lining is there we 

all know. We can all see it if we will only 

look for it. If Ave do not have the happy 

faculty of seeing the bright side without look- 

12 



The New Century Home Book 

ing for it, we can cultivate it. If we try for 
only a little time to keep our eyes turned from 
the dark things of life, it will be found an easy 
habit to acquire. At the very least, we need not 
point out to others the dark side we see our- 
selves. If we choose to stay in the shadow our- 
selves, we need not withhold the sunshine from 
others. Cheerfulness is an essential element in 
the make-up of a happy home. 

There is no greater enemy of cheerfulness 
than sulking. Most of us have hours when we 
feel "out of sorts,'' when we can be neither 
cheerful nor even pleasant to those around us. 
When these hours come there is one safe rule to 
follow — we can keep away from others. When 
the cross mood comes over us we should shut 
ourselves up with it alone. Wliile we are under 
its baneful influence we should avoid every per- 
son for whom we care. We have no right to be 
cross and ill-tempered to others because we hap- 
pen to feel that way. A single petulant word 
spoken in an unfortunate moment may spoil the 
happiness of a whole family. 

Lock yourself in your own room and stay 

13 



The New Century Home Book 

there until you are sure you can meet your 
loved ones with smiles. It will be helpful to 
them and helpful to yourself. 

Be Considerate. 

No one would think of speaking harshly 
to a friend or a guest. Surely the members 
of our own families are entitled to as much 
consideration as our friends or guests. Yet 
how many times do we find fault in the home 
circle for little things that we would hard- 
ly notice elsewhere ! It is the little things that 
make or mar the home life. Kind words and 
gentle acts make the happy home. Sympathy ;, 
help, and comfort should not be withheld from 
one's companions until illness or trouble has 
overtaken them. 

Nothing is worse in the family circle than 

nagging. There will be no nagging where each 

one in the family is considerate of the feelings 

of others. Rough and hasty words have no 

place in the happy home. If we are considerate 

of those around us, no such words will be heard 

in our families. 

14 



The New Century Home Book 

Be Courteous. 

"Thank you" belongs as much to our parents 
and children as to total strangers. We would 
not think of accepting an act of kindness 
from a stranger without acknowledging it with 
thanks. Why should we neglect to be cour- 
teous to those who are kind to us at home? 
The wife, the husband, the child who brings us 
something we want, who does some little errand 
for us, who brings us a book, a glass of water, 
or a chair, should receive as grateful thanks as 
would be given to one not in the family. 

The value of courtesy extends far beyond the 
home circle. Children who have learned to be 
courteous by the example of parents at home 
grow up into courteous men and women, and by 
their courtesy help to make other men and 
women happy. Bring up your children to be 
courteous at home, and you add to the sum of 
happiness in the world. 

Let the children's training in courtesy begin 

in the nursery. The little one who is old 

enough to ask for favors is old enough to learn 

to say "Please" and "Thank you." 

15 



The New Century Home Book 

Be Patient. 

The hasty word or act has no place in a happy 
home. Just stop a moment before you scold 
or punish your child for some little act he 
ought not to have committed. In that mo- 
ment you may recall some excuse for the act 
that will make it less wrong and the punish- 
ment uncalled for. Be patient with the little 
ones. How can you expect them to know as 
much or do as much as their elders? When 
your child asks a question be patient enough to 
answer him. It is the child's right to be taught, 
and he can learn only by asking questions. 

Half the little annoyances of life will disap- 
pear if one is only patient under them. Almost 
all the other half will go the same way if one 
does not worry over them. Do not worry. 
There is no greater fallacy than the idea that 
"somebody has got to worry to keep the world 
going." Too many people have an idea that it 
is their duty to worry. They give a mistaken 
meaning to "worry." Looking out for the fu- 
ture is not "worrying," and "worrying" is not 

looking out for the future. 

16 



The New Centttry Home Book 

It is when all worr}^ has been put aside that 
one can best prepare for the future. The mind 
free from worry is in the best condition to make 
plans which are to lead to success. Fix in your 
mind the right definition of "worrying," and 
ask yourself if you ever knew of a case in which 
worrying was beneficial. Your answer is sure 
to be "No." 

"I have proven the proposition over and over 
in my own experience/' says Mary Boardman 
Page, "and I tell you it is wholly true, that 
worry was never intended to be a part of the 
mental structure of man. It is a vicious and 
unnatural habit into which we have fallen 
through generations of artificial thinking. So 
far from stimulating and helping us to action, 
it cheats us and robs us of strength. What 
friction is to the mechanical world, worry is to 
the mental machinery. It retards motion and 
lessens force, and as the most perfect machine 
is the one in which friction plays the least part, 
so the best-equipped and most successful men- 
tality is the one in which worry is most 

eliminated. 

(2) 17 



The New Century Home Book 

"Nature never worries. If you would not 
worry, you have only to let Nature's law of not 
worry enter into you and have its way. Nature's 
law is stronger than any little law you have 
made for yourself. Not worry will drive out 
worry if you will only be still and let it. This 
attitude of mind is one that is well worth culti- 
vating. Trust yourself to it." 

Be Helpful. 

Each member of the family can do some- 
thing toward making home happy. Especially 
is this true of the young people. Too many 
boys and girls get the notion that their parents 
who provide the home must be the only ones 
to make it attractive. Every boy and every 
girl can be helpful at home. They can help 
father and mother in a host of little things, and 
they can help in the pleasures of home life. 
The boy or girl who finds the mother busily sew- 
ing for him or her can easily spend a half hour 
reading aloud from the mother's favorite book 
or paper. The daughter who has been taught 

to play on the piano can often smooth the 

18 



The New Century Home Book 

wrinkles out of her tired and careworn father's 
brow by playing for him his favorite pieces. 
Let every son and daughter give a moment's 
thought to what he or she can do to help 
brighten the home — and then do it. There can 
be no question of the result. 

Be Truthful. 

Let every member of your family learn that 
you are to be trusted. It is a painful thing 
when children are found questioning the things 
they are told by father or mother, but they 
learn to do so very quickly when parents get 
into the habit of deceiving them. There should 
be no secrets between husband and wife or 
parent and child. "Honesty is the best policy" 
in the home as well as in the business world. 
If you cannot answer truthfully the questions 
put to you in the home circle, do not answer 
at all. 

"A man should never be ashamed to own that 

he has been in the wrong/' Alexander Pope 

wrote. "It is but saying in other words that he 

is wiser to-day than he was yesterday." 

19 



The New Ccntary Home Book 

Be Neat. 

It is hard to imagine a happy home that is 
neither neat nor clean. It is easy to be neat, 
and not hard to be clean. The humblest little 
home can be as neat and clean as the finest 
mansion in the world. Neatness and cleanliness 
in the home are sure to lead to neatness and 
cleanliness in the persons of all in the home. 

No home is attractive in which the wife and 
mother is careless in her personal appearance 
or slovenly in allowing dirt to accumulate in 
any room. The husband and father, too, should 
be careful of his personal appearance. Un- 
doubtedly he was so before his marriage. Sure- 
ly his wife is not less to be thought of than when 
she was his sweetheart. Dirt and untidiness 
have driven many a man away from what might 
otherwise have been a happy home. 

Be Clean in Language. 

Neither at home nor anywhere else should 

bad language be indulged in. Profanity has no 

place in the vocabulary of a gentleman. It is 

never heard in the happy home. Clean lan- 

20 



The New Century Home Book 

guage tends in itself to engender and preserve 
clean thoughts. Give no language to other 
thoughts, and they vrill soon die. 

Avoid slang. Not only is slang ill-bred, but 
its use tends to lower the moral tone of the 
whole family circle. If parents use slang, their 
children will use it. Slang words are noxious 
weeds in the garden of conversation. They 
must be rooted out, or they will overshadow and 
choke the flowers of good language. 

Be Contented. 

Make the most and the best of your sur- 
roundings. Grumbling does no good. Shun 
the habit as you would the plague. Do not 
grumble over your house. If there is anything 
wrong about it, change it. If you cannot 
change it, bear with it as best you can and stop 
complaining. Ignore it. To let an unpleasant 
thing alone minimizes its unpleasantness. If 
you never grumble at others, they will have less 
reason to grumble at you. 

Before you grumble stop and think whether 

the things you want to complain of can be bet- 

21 



The New Century Home Book 

tered. If they can, try and better them. If 
they cannot, it will do no good to grumble. If 
you feel like grumbling at your lot in life, look 
around you. See how many persons there are 
among 3^our own acquaintances for whose lot 
you would not care to exchange your own. 
Then stop grumbling. No home can be happy 
that shelters a grumbler. 

Do not be contented in the sense of never tr}^- 
ing to better your condition. A legitimate am- 
bition to get ahead in the world is an essential 
ingredient of real happiness. One must work to 
enjoy life, and the incentive for work is the de- 
sire to improve one's condition in life. True 
contentment does not interfere with advance- 
ment. Add to your blessings all you can, but 
meanwhile do not be discontented with those 

you have. 

Be Generous. 

Selfishness has no place in a happy home. 

Share the joys and the pleasures of your life 

with all the members of your family. What 

right have you to ask for care and attention 

if you are unwilling to return them? Espe- 

22 



The New Century Home Book 

cially should selfishness be guarded against 
where there are children in the household. 
Parents who set the example of selfishness can- 
not expect their children to grow into generous 
men and women. 

Teach your children to be generous in the 
everyday matters of life. Let the child be 
taught to share with those around him the 
things that give him most pleasure — but let 
him be taught by your example rather than by 
precept. Do not always insist upon having your 
own way. Even if you feel that your way is the 
best, it is wise to be generous sometimes and 
give way to others. 

Be Polite. 

Good manners have a great deal to do with 
happiness. They are almost an absolute neces- 
sity for success in business or professional life. 
It is a sad mistake to drop good manners at 
home. To be good-mannered is to consider 
the rights and comforts of others before one's 
own, and this is just the spirit that should be 

found in the home circle. Children should not 

23 



The New Century Home Book 

have to go away from home to learn to be polite. 
They should be taught by the constant example 
of father and mother. 

Horace Mann wrote long ago that manners 
easily and rapidly mature into morals. As 
childhood advances to manhood the transition 
from bad manners to bad morals is almost im- 
perceptible. It is an old and true saying that 
"the truest courtesy is the truest Christianity." 

Gentleness and consideration for others are 
at the foundation of good manners. In busi- 
ness and social life politeness is of vast im- 
portance. Good manners often count as much 
or more than ability in turning the scale toward 
promotion. It is of little use to possess kindly 
feelings if you cannot express them in a kindly 

way. 

Be Economical. 

Do not be niggardly or stingy — but live 
within your means. No home can be truly 
happy over which hangs the dark cloud of 
debt. No matter how small your income, noth- 
ing but the most absolute necessity should per- 
mit you to exceed it in your expenditures. 

24 



The New Century Home Book 

Only by keeping one's outgo less than one's in- 
come can one "get ahead" in this world. 

Do not leave all the economy to the wife and 
mother. Never fear but she will do her share 
of the saving. Watch your own personal ex- 
penses. If you find yourself indulging in pleas- 
ures or habits that are purely personal, and 
therefore purely selfish, cut them off and see 
what pleasure can be given to the whole family 
with the money thus saved. Why should the 
wife be forced to go with a shabby or out-of-date 
bonnet while the husband spends the price of a 
dozen bonnets for cigars? 

Avoid "accounts" in the stores. To hav^ 
credit in the retail stores is always a tempta- 
tion to use it. It is better to "pay as you go.'^ 
It is harder to pay for a thing after you have 
had it than when you buy it. Then, too, one 
does not realize how the bills are mounting up 
when one is simply having purchases put on the 
"charge account." It takes the monthly bill to 
show how thoughtlessly extravagant one has 
been. It is alwa3^s easier to save money when 

one buys for cash only. 

25 



The New Century Home Book 

"He that goes a-borrowing goes a-sorrowing/' 
said poor Richard. 

Writing of his ideal of a perfect life, Eobert 
Louis Stevenson said : "To be honest, to be kind, 
to earn a little and to spend a little less; to 
make, on the whole, a family happier by his 
presence; to renounce when that shall be neces- 
sary and not to be embittered; to keep a few 
friends, but these without capitulation; above 
all, on the same grim conditions, to keep 
friends with himself — here is a task for all that 
a man has of fortitude or delicacy." 

" Neither a borrower nor a lender be ; 
For loan oft loses both itself and friend, 
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry," 

Shakespeare declares, and Smiles wrote : "Debt 
makes everything a temptation. It lowers a 
man in self-respect, places him at the mercy of 
his tradesmen and servants. He cannot call 
himself his own master, and it is difficult for 
him to be truthful." 

Shun extravagance, avoid ostentatious dis- 
play, repress the desire to outshine others, and 

you will find it less difficult to keep out of debt. 

26 



The New Century Home Book 

Be Temperate. 

To have a sound mind in a sound body one 
must be moderate in all things. Moderation 
is a necessity if one wishes for good health. 
Especially is temperance called for in eating. 
Physicians declare that many more persons die 
from overeating than from drinking too much 
strong liquors. Choose your food according to 
the season of the year, and avoid overeating at 
any time. 

Meat, both fat and lean, should be eaten more 
frequently in cold weather than in hot, but it 
should not be altogether given up in hot weather 
unless by the advice of your physician. The 
body requires plenty of sustenance to overcome 
the demands of the heated term upon the sys- 
tem. The character of the food rather than the 
quantity should be watched. 

Above all things, do not indulge in stimulat- 
ing drinks in hot weather. Beer, wine, and 
spirits should be rigidly tabooed. Alcohol is 
far too heating and stimulating to be safely used 
in hot weather. Sunstroke and other ills due to 

great heat find many more victims among per- 

27 



The New Century Home Book 

sons who indulge in drinks containing alcohol 
than among water drinkers. 

The benefit derived from food depends very 
much upon the condition of the body while eat- 
ing. If taken when one is moody or cross, 
digestion is much less perfect and much slower 
than when taken with a cheerful disposition and 
amid cheerful surroundings. Avoid eating rap- 
idly, and whenever possible avoid a silent meal. 
Doctors assert that one can often eat and digest 
well food taken when one is dining in pleasant 
and sociable company that would remain long 
undigested and perhaps cause annoying diseases 
if eaten alone or when one is in a depressed 
mood. 

Temperance in the use of drinking water is 
also a necessity of good health. The idea that 
one can get cool in hot weather by drinking 
large quantities of very cold water is a danger- 
ous fallacy. Moderation in the amount drank 
and in the temperature of the water is the safe 
rule. Nature has herself furnished the right 
temperature for drinking water in the running 

spring. 

2S 



The New Century Home Book 

Water cooled by being placed in bottles on 
ice is preferable to water with ice in it. If you 
drink ordinary ice water, do not take it directly 
into the stomach. Take it in small sips and 
hold it a second in the mouth before swallowing 
it. You will find it will take less water to sat- 
isfy thirst and will do you more good. 

Moderation in the use of any kind of stimulant 
should be constantly followed. Nothing is more 
certain to undermine one's health and break 
one down prematurely than the use of stimu- 
lants when they are not needed and the over- 
working of the system under the false strength 
derived from them. 

The young man who fancies that he needs 
stimulants to do his work should go to his doc- 
tor before taking the stimulants. If he really 
needs the stimulant, he needs the attention of 
the physician. The young man who forgets 
moderation is inviting disease, premature de- 
cay, and impaired vigor at the very period of his 
life when he should be at his best in body and 
mind and doing his best work for himself and 

for humanity. 

29 



The New Century Home Book 

Nature's law is temperance. You cannot go 
amiss if you follow Nature's guidance. 

When work is to be resumed after a meal the 
food should be light and as digestible as pos- 
sible. Be sure to follow this rule in the case of 
school children. Do not let your children run 
from school to the table^ eat in a hurry, and 
then run back to their studies. This is done 
in far too many homes. It is the cause of much 
of the ill health among school children. 

Let at least ten minutes be spent in quiet 

resting and pleasant conversation before the 

meal is served. Then be careful about the food. 

Salads, rich cake, fried food, preserves, and rich 

pastries should be barred from the children's 

hasty luncheon, and from all meals when the 

eater is to resume work directly after eating. 

30 



The New Century Home Book 



Stubi? in tbe Ibome 

T^ HE family that does not employ a part of its 
evenings in study misses an opportunity 
for great pleasure and profit. Let each member 
of the family join in the study, and all will find 
it a pleasure rather than a task. 

Choose for study some subject in which all 
the family are interested. Procure some stand- 
ard work on the subject, and let one of the 
family read aloud from it for a half hour or 
longer. As the reading progresses, if any 
thought or question is suggested to any hearer, 
let it be mentioned at once. Suspend the read- 
ing and discuss the thought or question. If it 
is a question and no one can give the answer 
oifhand, search for it in cyclopedia or gazetteer 
or other authority. If not readily found, let 
some one be appointed to look it up later and 
report when the family gathers for the next 
evening of study. 

Eecent troubles in China suggested the Chi- 

31 



The New Century Home Book 

nese empire as a subject for study to a family 
that had adopted the home study idea. From 
the daily paper the father read aloud the prog- 
ress of events. Hardly a sentence failed to sug- 
gest a question. The mention of a river or city 
called for its location with the help of a geogra- 
phy and a gazetteer. The cyclopedia and bio- 
graphical dictionary were in frequent use to 
furnish information about statesmen, generals, 
and diplomats active in the conduct of affairs 
in the empire. A whole evening was given up 
to the Chinese Wall. Everybody in the family 
knew something about that wall, but when the 
questions were asked just when the wall was 
built, who built it, what was its length and 
height, just what territory did it inclose, and 
so on, none could give correct answers. 

China's civil and religious history, the story 
of her rulers, her methods of government, for- 
eign "spheres of influence," her wars and con- 
quests and defeats, her great statesmen, the 
.work of foreign missions in her territory, her 
ways of dealing with other nations — all these 

and numerous other topics came up and were 

32 



The New Ccntary Home Book 

thoroughly discussed in the family study circle, 
and a fund of valuable information was thus 
gained that was a constant source of pleasure 
to every member of the family. 

Other things being equal, the children of 
the family which adopts a home study hour 
will be apt to lead their classmates in school. 
In many ways the knowledge so pleasantly ac- 
quired at home will prove beneficial in their 
studies in school. In geography and history 
it will give them a distinct advantage, while 
the home study of current events will develop 
and strengthen the habit and power of re- 
search so useful in mastering their lessons in 

the schoolroom. 

(3) 33 



The New Century Home Book 



ffioofea in tbe Ibome 

*'O00KS are waste paper/' George Washing- 
ton once wrote, "unless we spend in 
action the wisdom we get from them." 

Washington's epigram applies more to the 
reading of books than to the books one reads, 
but it is a capital thing to have in mind when 
buying books for your library. You cannot 
gain wisdom to spend in action from books that 
contain no wisdom. 

In scarcely any department of home life is it 

so difficult to give exactly the right advice as in 

the library. Individual tastes and individual 

needs differ so widely that books which would 

prove useful and instructive to one will often be 

worthless to another of equal intelligence. Only 

the most general suggestions can be given to an 

audience including every class of readers. It 

is far easier to tell what books not to put upon 

the library shelves than to provide a list for all 

who read. 

34 



The New Century Home Book 

Do not let the vast number of new books in 
every field of literature lead you to forget the 
old standards and the old authors. Nor need 
the quantity of new books embarrass you in se- 
lecting the volumes for your shelves, for the 
very briefest search will satisfy you that the 
percentage of really good and useful books in 
the great stream running from the publishers' 
presses is very small. At the same time, there 
have never been more good books, in good type, 
good paper, and good binding, and at such rea- 
sonable prices, as now. 

Assuming that you wish your library to be 
of a general character for all the family, rather 
than a collection of works upon some special 
subject, you should find room for history, 
poetry, biography, popular science, and fiction. 
Your library is deficient if it does not contain 
a good history of your own country. Let this 
be your first purchase in books of history. The 
histories of other countries can follow as your 
means permit. Buy your histories to read 
rather than for reference books. You need 
not be confined to dry and dull compilations of 



35 



The New Century Home Book 

unadorned facts and figures meant only for 
students. Such a work as Bancroft's History 
of the United States of America, or Gibbon's 
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, equals 
any romance in the grip it takes upon the read- 
er's interest. 

Closely allied to history are biographies and 
autobiographies, which too many readers neg- 
lect. In no better way, as a rule, can you gain 
so complete a knowledge of the manners and 
customs of a given time as in reading the lives 
of men of prominence in that time. 

Authentic tales of travel and geographical 
research should not be forgotten. The stories 
of the men who have penetrated the frozen 
regions of the North, the jungles of the interior 
of Africa, and the forbidden countries of the 
East are as valuable as they are of thrilling in- 
terest to young and old alike. 

In poetry you should first seek the works of 

the best writers of your own country, and then 

the great masters of other countries at your will. 

Do not fall into the error of regarding poetry 

as unworthy the attention of men of practical, 

36 



The New Centuty Home Book 

everyday life. The most sublime sentiments 
that move mankind onward and upward have 
found their truest expressions in the words of 
the great poets. It is no waste of time to read 
Shakespeare, Milton, Goethe, Dante, and our 
own Whittier, Bryant, and Longfellow. 

Science, too, should find a place in your 
library. As with history, you need not fill your 
shelves with the learned, exhaustive — and ex- 
hausting — treatises of scholars writing for other 
scholars. There is scarcely a branch of science 
which does not now have its own literature in 
popular and attractive form, in which child and 
adult can learn of the world and its forces with^ 
out a thought of study such as one gets in the 
schoolroom. 

In the field of fiction you must be almost 
wholly your own guide. Earely do two persons 
think alike on all phases of the subject of novel 
reading. Those who would banish absolutely 
every book of fiction find their justification in 
the great flood of novels poured from the press 
in which there is not a thought worthy of 
preservation, in which false ideas of life are set 

37 



The New Century Home Book 

forth, in which the foundations of social law 
and order are attacked, and in which immoral- 
ity is inculcated and vice made dangerously at- 
tractive. Those who go to the other extreme 
and would have practically all knowledge con- 
veyed through the medium of novels can point 
to many romances which portray in the most 
pleasing way the history, manners, and customs 
of other times and places, wholesome ideas of 
life, the right way to live, and high ideals to be 
sought after, and which are read by many per- 
sons who would never read a history or an essay. 
In fiction, as in everything else, it is well to 
avoid extremes. In buying for your library the 
test of time is the safest guide. Following this 
guide, you will have such standard works as 
those of Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, Hawthorne, 
Cooper, and George Eliot, while your shelves 
will be almost bare of the latest novels of the 
day. The novel which is most talked about to- 
day may very likely be forgotten to-morrow. 
Any reader can recall books and authors "all 
the rage" a few years ago and now almost en- 
tirely forgotten. You need not cumber your 

38 



The New Century Home Book 

library with the writings of such. Wait a year 
or two and see what novels have stood the test 
of time. You will waste less money on trash, 
and your library will be much richer. You 
ought not to read the latest novel before you 
have read Dickens or Scott. 

A first-class cyclopedia and gazetteer should 
be in every library. Rightly used, they will 
benefit every member of the family. Perhaps 
one of their best uses is as reference books in 
reading the current news of the world. If you 
read of some important event in a foreign coun- 
try, or some complication between two nations 
or states, it will help you in many ways to turn 
to your gazetteer and learn the relative geo- 
graphical positions of the countries. The story 
of a storm or fire which devastates a city is bet- 
ter understood if you learn something about the 
place in your cyclopedia. When you read of 
men of prominence at home or abroad your 
knowledge will be of more value if you have 
learned just who and what they are from the 
cyclopedia. 

No library should be without a dictionary— 

39 



The New Century Home Book 

and it should be read. One of the most suc- 
cessful newspaper men in New York devotes 
fifteen minutes every day to reading the diction- 
ary. He began to do so for the purpose of add- 
ing to his vocabulary. He soon found it was 
helping him to a right use of words, to a wider 
knowledge of their exact meaning, and to a 
better understanding of the language. Instead 
of study, the reading became a pleasure. He 
regards his "dictionary quarter of an hour" as 
the most helpful time in each day's duties. 

In reading books you must depend largely 
upon your own judgment, but you can train 
your judgment to be right. Do not read books 
or papers which suggest thoughts you would 
not utter. Beware of books suggestive of evil, 
no matter by whom written or in what at- 
tractive form they may be clothed. 

If you find that a book is doing you no good, 
you have an excellent reason for dropping it. 
If you are gaining from it no information, no 
new idea, no additional knowledge on any sub- 
ject, to continue reading it is a waste of time. 

There is no lack of good books for all the time 

40 



The New Century Home Book 

you can devote to reading, no matter how great 
may be your leisure. You need not read worth- 
less books, even when reading solely for amuse- 
ment. 

Very many men and women are too busy to 
try to keep up with all the best books of the day, 
but they need not give up all knowledge of cur- 
rent literature. There are numerous periodicals 
published expressly for these busy people, in 
which the latest books are reviewed and their 
leading features quoted. Nearly all the daily 
and weekly newspapers also keep their readers 
in touch with the books of the day, so that those 
who cannot find time to look into the books for 
themselves can at least know their most valuable 
contents. If you cannot read the books, read 
about them. Do not give them entirely up. 

If there are children in your family, keep 

a watchful eye upon the books they read. Your 

own library should contain nothing you would 

not care to have fall into their hands, but you 

should know what books they are borrowing 

from their young friends, or what they are 

drawing from the circulating library, if there is 

41 



The New Century Home Book 

one in the place. A boy or girl under fifteen or 
sixteen is too young to make the best and wisest 
selection of books to read. 

There is so much good literature for the 
young that it is easy to furnish your children 
with the right kind of books, and thus from the 
beginning train them up to appreciate and en- 
joy only the best. 

If you keep a servant, have a bookshelf in the 
kitchen, and do not limit its contents to a cook- 
book and newspapers two or three days old. 
Your servant may not have as good taste in liter- 
ature as you have, but she will care as little for 
old news, and she will derive as little pleasure 
from perusing a cookbook. Provide her with 
good fiction ; not the penny dreadful sort, which 
should have no jolacc in any room in the house. 

Books of travel and adventure will probably 
be attractive to your servant. If she is neat and 
careful, you can safely give her permission to 
take books from your library. In too many 
cases the servant's evenings after her work is 
finished are the gloomiest hours in her day, be- 
cause she must sit alone in her room or the 

42 



The New Century Home Book 

kitchen. A good, entertaining book for such 
hours will make her happier and more con- 
tented and a better servant. 

Do not buy books that are too cheaply printed 
and put together. Paper should be good and 
binding substantial, and it is always better to 
have the type large enough and clear enough to 
be read without straining the eyes. Prices of 
books are now so moderate that you can afford 
to insist upon having good workmanship. 

Dust is a great enemy of books. Keep it from 
them as much as you can. See that books and 
shelves in your library are frequently cleaned. 
In addition to daily dustings, each book should 
be carefully wiped with a light, dry cloth at 
frequent intervals. The volumes are otherwise 
sure to get "grimy." Dirt works in between the 
leaves, it is difficult to handle them without 
leaving finger marks, and the beauty as well as 
cash value of the books is greatly injured. 

Dampness is another deadly enemy of books. 

It affects the binding, which it quickly loosens 

and destroys, while it discolors and disfigures 

the leaves. 

43 



The New Century Home Book 

Too great heat is also injurious to books. It 
warps and distorts their covers and tends to 
powder the paste used in their binding. Keep 
your books in dry air, but avoid excessive heat. 

How to read newspapers is a problem difficult 
to solve. The great modern daily contains so 
much that is good sandwiched in with so much 
that is undesirable that it is very hard to pick 
out only the good and leave the bad. The aver- 
age reader undoubtedly spends much time with 
his newspaper that could be spent in much more 
profitable reading. 

A newspaper article of three or four columns 
or more in length is rarely worth reading in 
full. Unless you have some direct personal in- 
terest in the subject of the article, it will be time 
wasted to read all the minute details which help 
to fill the columns. Why should you take time 
to read five thousand words about a murder in 
a city you have, perhaps, never seen, and the 
parties to which you never before heard of? 
Nine times out of ten the headlines and the first 
two hundred words of the story will tell you all 

you can possibly need to know. 

44 



The New Century Home Book 

Stories of suicides, scandals, and crimes of 
all degrees can be passed over with the assur- 
ance that you are missing nothing of the slight- 
est value. In every paper there will be a large 
number of short articles a mere glance at which 
will tell you that they have no interest for you, 
and these you need not read. 

In no sense is what has been said to be taken 
as a condemnation of the daily newspaper. On 
the contrary, every home should take such a 
journal. But it should be read with discrimina- 
tion, and not be permitted to take up so much 

time as to shut out better literature. 

45 



The New Century Home Book 



Convereation in tbe Ibome 

TN too many homes conversation is a lost art, 
or one that has never been known. Even- 
ings are spent in silent reading and meal hours 
in silent eating. Only when there is a visitor 
is any attempt made to keep up a conversation, 
and lack of practice makes this a task evident to 
the visitor and embarrassing to the whole 
family. 

Every household should cultivate the art of 
conversation. There is no better time for this 
than at meals. Bright conversation and laugh- 
ter at the dinner table is a hygienic blessing. 
It is a great aid to digestion. Food taken when 
one is discontented or irritated is hard to digest 
and often causes disorders. Let each member 
of the family "save up" something to say at the 
table which shall help to start a pleasant conver- 
sation. Let the conversation ball be once set 
going, and it can easily be kept rolling. Do not 

try to confine the topic to some one's particular 

46 



The New Century Home Book 

hobby. Give each one at table a chance to 
talk about the particular thing that interests 
him or her. All will thus be interested, and the 
mealtime will pass with surprising quickness. 

A great deal has been said about never "talk- 
ing shop" at home. It is a poor rule. It may 
not be wise or in good taste to discuss one's busi- 
ness affairs with friends or visitors at home, but 
it is generally a great mistake for the husband 
never to talk with his wife about his business. 
Surely the business which takes up the whole of 
his day ought to have some interest for the wife 
and family it supports. It is not necessary to 
go over all the petty details, but the wife should 
be his confidante in all his business affairs. 

Let the young husband begin by keeping his 
wife fully informed of the condition of his 
finances and make this his practice always. It 
is worse than a mistake to conceal from his 
wife the fact that business may have grown 
poor. It is sheer folly to keep the wife in ig- 
norance of a falling off in the husband's income 
and permit her to keep up a scale of household 

and personal expenditures adopted in days of 

47 



The New Century Home Book 

prosperity. Many a man has wrecked his for- 
tune in this way. His wife has known nothing 
of the depression in his business and has 
helped to carry him down when, had she had 
the confidence which was her due, her liouse- 
hold retrenchments and her sympathy and 
counsel might have tided her husband over his 
difficulties and saved him from failure. One's 
wife is always a safe partner. 

To talk well is an art. To some fortunate 
persons it comes as a natural gift. Most of us 
must cultivate it. Gossip and tittle-tattle do 
not belong to good talking. Avoid them. Be 
sparing of criticism of others in conversation. 
Especially beware of ill-natured criticism. 
The person whose cleverness in conversation 
draws friends around him never says anything 
that can wound the feelings of any of his 
hearers. Two rules are imperative in conver- 
sation: Look squarely into the face of the per- 
son you are addressing, and pay undivided at- 
tention to the person who is addressing you. 



48 



The New Century Home Book 



jEyerciee in tbe Ibome 

O IR JAMES SAWYER, an English scientist, 
recently prepared nineteen rules to be ob- 
served if one wished to live to be a centenarian. 
One of these rules was, "Take exercise before 
breakfast." x^nother was, "Take daily exercise 
in the open air." These rules are good for sum- 
mer and winter alike. Many people who are 
careful about taking proper exercise in winter 
seem to think it is not needed in summer. They 
are wrong. Often one's system needs the bene- 
fit of regular exercise more in hot weather than 
in the winter. Keep up exercise the year round, 
and so far as possible take it at regular hours. 

For the early morning exercise there are 
scores of methods, any one or all of which are 
good. It is an excellent plan on rising to stand 
for a moment in the open window — or, at least, 
where the air is fresh from out-of-doors — and 
begin the day by exercising the lungs. Draw 

in all- the air your lungs will hold, and then 
(4) 49 



The New Century Home Book 

slowly exhale it. Repeat this fifteen or twenty 
times. It will give your lungs the kind of exer- 
cise they need to prevent pulmonary troubles, 
it will give your body an erect carriage, and it 
will give to your whole system the best tonic in 
Nature's laboratory — good air. 

Dumb-bells, Indian clubs, wands, a bedroom 
chair — any of these may be made useful in the 
morning exercise. If you have none of these, 
get your boy or girl to teach you the calisthenics 
learned in school and go through the motions. 
A "punching bag" affords capital exercise. 
Hang a football from the ceiling by a heavy, 
strong cord, and then stand off and hit it with 
your fists. Five minutes at the punching bag 
will give you an astonishing amount of the best 
kind of exercise, in which not a muscle of the 
body escapes its share. This form of exercise is 
particularly useful for women, but for them the 
punching bag should be a light ball, especially 
for beginners. 

For the daily outdoor exercise nothing is bet- 
ter than walking, but moderation is as desirable 

here as in everything else. One should not walk 

50 



The New Century Home Book 

too far or too fast. Avoid walking in the hot 
sun in summer. In the early morning or after 
sunset is the best time for walking in warm 
weather. Take your natural gait in walking. 
Notice the position of your body, especially the 
shoulders, when you fill your lungs with fresli 
air at the open window. Take the same atti- 
tude in walking. 

The bicycle, lawn tennis, croquet, golf, base- 
ball — these and other outdoor sports are good 
for exercise. But nothing really takes the place 
of walking for healthy exercise. It should be 
the hardest kind of a storm that prevents the 

daily walk. 

51 



The New Century Home Book 



(Bl^mnaeiume in tbe Ibome 

A HOME gymnasium is a most excellent 
thing for grown folk as well as children. 
Any room in the house or a small space in the 
barn may be used, but first be sure that it can 
be well ventilated. A gymnasium without con- 
stant fresh air is worse than none. If you can 
afford to spend a few dollars, it will be well to 
buy a little apparatus. There are numerous ex- 
ercising machines on the market, and few of 
them are without merit. With these machines 
come full directions how to set them up and use 
them. But do not give up the gymnasium for 
lack of money. You can easily set up apparatus 
which will give you a deal of helpful exercise. 

A ladder placed in an inclined position 
against the wall will afford means for a large 
number of movements to give the body strength 
and grace. Fasten a weight to the end of a 
piece of clothesline and run the line through a 

pulley screwed into the wall a little higher than 

52 



The New Century Home Book 

the head. Put up another line and weight 
about two feet from the first, and by standing 
with your back to the wall and pulling the 
weights up, with arms extended in different 
directions, you have an excellent apparatus for 
developing hands, arms, chest, and back. 

Horizontal bars are not difficult to set up, 
and more than five hundred beneficial move- 
ments can be performed upon them. The 
punching bag should have a prominent place in 
the gymnasium. A homemade rowing machine 
can be built with a little strong rope, a couple 
of floor pulleys, and a little ingenuity. Visit a 
gymnasium and look over the apparatus. A few 
minutes' observation will give you the best ideas 
of apparatus that you can build at home. 

Keep in mind that your girls need gym- 
nasium exercise as much as, or even more than, 
your boys. Boys always get more natural exer- 
cise than girls. They are out of doors more, 
and their sports are usually of a more vigorous 
kind. Surely women need sound bodies at least 
as much as men. Do not be afraid of having 

your girl a "tomboy." That is a bugaboo that 

53 



The New Century Home Book 

has been responsible for many a woman's ill 
health and feeble body. Girls cannot romp as 
much as boys, but they can enjoy the same exer- 
cise in the home gymnasium, and get the same 
benefit from it. 

Keep in mind, too, that adults need exercise 
of the gymnasium sort. A few minutes each 
day in the gymnasium will do wonders toward 
restoring the vitality of hard-working fathers 
and tired mothers. The need of regularity in 
exercise has already been spoken of. The best 
results follow a regular routine. 

The danger in the home gymnasium is the 
temptation to do too much. Children are 
nearly always eager for the gymnasium work, 
and they do not appreciate the value of moder- 
ation. Their elders often show a lack of wis- 
dom in the same direction. Carried to excess, 
exercise in the gymnasium is harmful rather 
than helpfuL See that your children do not 
spend too much time in the gymnasium or at 
one kind of exercise. It will do them no harm 
to keep at work until tired, but do not let them 

continue until exhausted. 

54 



The New Century Home Book 

To Live a Century. 
These are the rules laid down by Sir James 
Sawyer to insure a long life : 

1. Sleep eight hours a day. 

2. Sleep on the right side. 

3. Keep your bedroom windows open all night, 

4. Have a screen in front of the bedroom door. 

5. Have your bed away from the wall. 

6. Take every morning a bath with the water the tempera- 
ture of the body — not colder. 

7. Take exercise before breakfast. 

8. Eat little meat, and see that it is thoroughly cooked. 

9. (For adults.) Do not drink milk. 

10. Eat plenty of fat to feed the cells which destroy the 
germs of disease. 

11. Avoid intoxicants, which destroy these cells. 

12. Take daily exercise in the open air. 

13. Keep no pet animals in your living rooms. They are 
likely to carry about the germs of disease. 

14. Live as much as possible in the country. 

15. Watch the three D's — drinking water, dampness, and 
drains. 

16. Vary your occupations. 

17. Take frequent short holidays. 

18. Limit your ambition. 

19. Keep your temper. 

These rules are easy to follow, and they are at 
least worth studying. 

Another physician gives this rule for attain- 
ing long life: 

"Make cleanliness your motto. Extend this 

to both the house and the grounds. Few women 

starve for food, but many do for fresh air. 

55 



The New Century Home Book 

Every woman if unable to take a daily walk 

should go out into the yard, or to the window if 

an invalid, and breathe deeply a hundred times ^ 

or more for exercise. 

"Throw away your corsets and never wear 

any tight clothing, and by all means sleep in a 

well-ventilated room. Beware of gluttony. If 

not hungry, confine the eating to fruit, and 

utilize the teeth instead of the stomach for 

chewing the food. Bathe often, and keep the 

blood pure. Exercise daily, and do a kind deed 

at every opportunity. The effect of exercise on 

the mind is always good ; the brain and nervous 

system are supplied with more blood, and the 

repair of waste is more complete." 

56 



The New Century Home Book 



]fre6b air in tbe Ibomc 

I T is impossible to exaggerate the importance 
of fresh air to health and life. Without 
fresh air men and plants and animals must die. 
Stop and think just a moment of what fresh air 
means to you and yours — and then fill your 
lungs with it and fill your house with it. 

Breathe properly. Breathe through the nose. 
Take long, full draughts that fill the lungs to 
their utmost capacity. Do this until you have 
made it your habit. Then compare your phys- 
ical condition — and your mental condition, too 
— with what it was before you began the prac- 
tice. After that you will keep up the habit, 
and you will insist upon the others of your 
household doing the same. Health and strength 
will be better than ever before. 

Breathe through the nose under all circum- 
stances — running, walking, resting, or sleeping. 
Breathe slowly, and let the air escape from the 

lungs as slowly. 

57 



The New Century Home Book 

Keep your house filled with fresh air. Keep 
bedroom windows and doors open. If this 
makes too much of a draught over the bed, move 
the bed. If the bed cannot be moved, put a 
screen before the door or window, but leave the 
window open. Many a child has been made ill 
because its bed and bedroom were not sufficient- 
ly aired. Never make up the bed until the room 
has been thoroughly aired. 

Lower from the top the windows in your liv- 
ing rooms. Let in the air even if a little dust 
happens to come in with it. In summer a warm 
room in which the air is fresh is more com- 
fortable and much safer than a room cooled by 
excluding fresh air. Keep up the circulation 
in your rooms by keeping the windows open at 
top and bottom. 

Never be afraid of sunlight in the house. 
Every room that can be opened to the sun 
should be flooded with sunlight at least once 
each day. Sunlight is one of the best disin- 
fectants. Let it strike into the closets and dark 
corners if you can. Let the children's room 

have plenty of it. 

58 



The New Century Home Book 

Let every room in your house have an airing 
every day. The tightly closed parlor, opened 
only on Sunday, or when company comes, is a 
direct menace to the health of all the household. 
Do not be afraid of the sunlight on your carpet. 
Better a carpet faded a little sooner than faded 
cheeks and broken health of wife, mother, or 
child. 

Remember that your living rooms need fresh 
air in the evening, when lamp or gas is lighted, 
even more than in the daytime. A single 
ordinary gas jet will consume as much oxygen 
as a dozen or more persons in the room. A 
lighted lamp requires as much oxygen as sev- 
eral persons. Too many forget this, and shut 
out the fresh air when shades are drawn or 
blinds closed and the room lighted up, just at 

the time it is most needed. 

59 



The New Century Home Book 



1Rc6t in tbc Ibome 

T^HE value of rest in the home life can hardly 
be overestimated. For mothers especially 
the benefits of rest are beyond computation. 
The constant strain of managing the daily af- 
fairs of a household is most wearing to mind 
and body. You cannot expect good health or 
^ood temper if you are always tired. You can- 
not give your best service to your family if you 
are overtired. You cannot do justice to your- 
self if you keep your nerves constantly "on 
edge." It is human nature to be cross when one 
is tired. Rest, keep your temper, and avoid the 
sharp word that will give pain to those around 
you, and perhaps lead to disputes that will ruin 
the happiness of the whole family. 

Do not say you have no time to rest. You 
can make the time. No matter what your 
duties are, you can take a few minutes each 
afternoon for rest. Take ten minutes if you 

cannot get more. Take a full half hour if at 

60 



The New Century Home Book 

all possible. Spend your resting time in abso- 
lute rest — not in reading, writing, or some other 
mere change of occupation. If you can stop 
even thinking, so much the better. Always lie 
down during your resting time. Relax every 
muscle of the body and keep perfectly quiet. 
Perfect rest comes only with entire relaxation 
of mind and body. 

Look upon this daily rest as a duty — and live 
up to it. It will help to keep you young. It 
will keep the wrinkles from your face and the 
clear color in your eyes. It will make you hap- 
pier, and so make all around you happier. It 
will save doctor's bills. If you really cannot 
find a full half hour for rest, take ten minutes 
three times a day. Insist upon your rest as your 

right and your duty. 

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The New Century Home Book 



Cbilbrcn in tbe Ibome 

I N the children in our American homes lies the 
hoj^e of the American nation. The hoys 
and girls of to-day are to be the men and 
women of to-morrow. They are to be respon- 
sible for the America of to-morrow. 

What sort of citizens these children are to 
make, whether they are to lead the country on 
to good or evil, will be determined almost 
wholly by their home life. In the home the 
child takes in the ideas of life that are to govern 
his future. The standard of right and wrong 
learned at home will be his standard in after 
life. The influence of the child's home will 
follow him to the grave. His character is 
formed in the home circle. It is the parent's 
duty to society and the State to give his chil- 
dren good morals, good impulses, good training, 
and good health. 

Stereotyped rules for the government and 

training of all children alike cannot be laid 

62 



The New Century Home Book 

down. There is the same individuality in chil- 
dren, as in grown folk. Different temperaments 
and different dispositions require different 
treatment. The best judges of the needs of a 
child are its parents. But there are some gen- 
eral rules that may be followed with safety and 
profit. 

Let your children act and feel like children. 
Do not try to make them old before their time. 
Do not try to keep them always under repres- 
sion. It is the very refinement of cruelty to 
compel a child to be as quiet as an adult. Let 
your children laugh and shout and romp. The 
laughing and shouting and romping can easily 
be kept within bounds. You can teach them to 
be considerate of those around them without 
wholly suppressing their natural noisiness. 
Generosity is natural to children. The child 
who is told that a neighbor is ill and that 
loud noise may prevent his recovery will re- 
spond to the appeal to his generosity and sym- 
pathy and keep quiet much more readily than 
in response to a harsh command without an 

explanation. 

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The New Century Home Book 

Let your children play in the open air as 
much as possible. An hour of play outdoors is 
worth three hours in a close room. Go out once 
in a while and join in the children's sports. 
Parents who never take part in their children's 
amusements lose a vast deal of profitable pleas- 
ure and miss the opportunity of giving a great 
deal of pleasure to the little ones. Children 
love grown people who share their sports with 
them, and the love of a child is worth having. 

Let the little ones stay children as long as 
they will. Do not hurry happy, careless child- 
hood into manhood. Add to their pleasures all 
you can. Try to treat them so that when they 
are grown up they will look back to the days of 
their childhood as the happiest of their lives, 
and to their father and mother as their best 
friends and truest companions. 

Teach your children — boys as well as girls — 

to help in the duties of the household, but be 

careful not to make servants of them. Do not 

bring them up to look upon household work as 

drudgery. Give a child some little thing to do 

that "big folks'' do, and help him to do it the 

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The New Century Home Book 

right way, but be careful not to overtax his 
strength. When your boy has been running 
errands for half the household a dozen times in 
the day give him credit for it. Do not send him 
to bed with the accusation, wliich he knows to 
be false, that he has done nothing. The child 
is as sensitive to unmerited censure or the with- 
holding of deserved praise as his elder, and the 
wound is often more lasting and more unfor- 
tunate in its effects. Let your little girl help 
in caring for her younger sister or baby brother, 
but be careful not to put upon her the work 
that requires the strong arms of mother or 
nurse. The little girl compelled to lift and 
carry her heavy baby brother or sister may 
easily receive injuries from which she can never 
recover. 

Teach your children to share one another's 
toys and playthings without wrangling. If two 
want the same thing at the same time and each 
is unwilling to yield, take it away from both 
until one is ready to give up. They will soon 
learn to settle differences without quarreling, 

and each will be ready to yield to the other. 
(5) 65 



The New Century Home Book 

When your child has committed a fault and 
has repented and asked for forgiveness, give it 
to him promptly. Do not deny him his good- 
night kiss and send him to bed feeling that ho 
has lost your love. His confession and plea for 
forgiveness should have its prompt reward. 
And then let the fault be forgotten. Never 
speak of it afterward. 

Never show a preference for one child over 
another. It is a fearful injustice to both — the 
one preferred as well as the one slighted. How 
can you be sure that the boy who seems to be a 
little "slower" than his brother will not grow 
into the stronger, better man? Are you sure 
that the girl who appears so much "brighter" 
than her sister will become the more useful 
woman ? 

Have a care how you speak of the faults of 
your children to others in their presence. It 
is a grievous mistake to mortify little ones in 
this way. It is not the way to encourage them 
to do better. 

Never punish a child when you are angry. 

You ought not to get angry ; but if you do, wait 

66 



The New Century Home Book 

until you have recovered your temper before 
inflicting punishment. An act that seems a 
serious offense when you are in anger may ap- 
pear only a trivial fault when you look at it 
calmly. It is fair to the child that his offense 
should be calmly considered before his punish- 
ment is fixed. Depend upon it that your child 
will know whether his punishment is admin- 
istered in anger or in sorrow, and he will meet 
your anger with anger, the value of the punish- 
ment will be lost, and the young heart will be 
hardened. Above all, never mistake an accident 
for a fault. 

Guard the speech of your children. Never 
permit rude words to pass unreproved. Cour- 
tesy is as important in children as in adults. 
The best way to prevent rudeness in speech and 
rudeness in manner in your children is to avoid 
it in your own conduct and language. Let the 
little ones understand that the injunction, 
"Honor thy father and thy mother," holds good 
now as when it was uttered, but do not make 
it hard for your children to obey it. Francis 

Quarles wrote in 1625 : 

67 



The New Century Home Book 

"So behave thyselfe among thy children that 
they may love and honor thy presence. Be not 
too fond, lest they fear thee not ; be not too bit- 
ter, lest they fear thee too much. Too much 
familiarity will embolden them; too little 
countenance will discourage them. So carry 
thyselfe that they may rather fear thy displeas- 
ure than thy correction. When thou reprovest 
them, doe it in season; when thou correctest 
them, doe it not in passion. As a wise child 
makes a happy father, so a wise father makes 

a happy child." 

68 



The New Century Home Book 



L 



^be IRurecrij in tbe Ibomc 

ET the room set apart for the nursery be one 
of the largest rooms in the house, if not 
the largest. Let it have a southern exposure, 
if possible, but be certain that it has a plentiful 
supply of fresh air. Sunshine and fresh air are 
prime requisites in the nursery. The higher up 
in the house the room is located the better its 
air is likely to be. Never establish the nursery 
in a basement. A basement nursery may save 
mother, nurse, or servant a few extra steps in a 
day, but it cannot be as healthy for the children. 

Use wall paper light in color and simple in 
design. After the paper has been put on the 
wall it should receive a coat of varnish. This 
will make it washable, and it should be washed 
once a week. The nursery should be the clean- 
est room in the house, and the walls should not 
be neglected in the cleaning. 

Few ornaments in the shape of bric-a-brac are 

needed in the nursery, but there should be 

69 



The New Centary Home Book 

plenty of pictures and photographs on the walls. 
See to it that the pictures are not too cheap and 
gaudy. Good pictures will help to develop the 
taste for artistic things in children, and the 
training may begin very young. 

Let the floor covering be of cork rather than 
the ordinary carpet. A large crawling rug for 
the baby should have its share of the floor space. 
It can be decorated with birds and animals or 
with funny pictures. If possible, let the room 
be heated by a grate fire. Before the grate or 
stove or register place a well-fastened high wire 
screen or fender, so that the little ones cannot 
fall into the fire or against the heater. 

Little furniture is necessary in the nursery. 
A wide, roomy lounge or sofa should be pro- 
vided for the children to lie down upon with- 
out disarranging the bed. The chairs and table 
should be small and low, so that the children 
can use them without inconvenience. A cup- 
board with a drawer for each child is an ex- 
cellent thing in the room. Every child likes 
to have a place in which to keep all his little 

treasures. The cupboard supplies this want. 

70 



The New Century Home Book 

Many a rainy hour will be passed contentedly 
by the children in taking out and arranging 
over again the contents of the cupboard 
drawers. A hammock suspended from stout 
hooks across the room or across a corner will 
give the children a deal of fun and amusement, 
and it makes a capital bed for the baby. 

In lieu of the crawling rug, or for use over 
the rug, a yard for the baby may be easily con- 
structed. Have a little fence made about two 
feet high and four yards long. Cut it into 
lengths of a yard each, and hinge the lengths 
together. This will give you when open a yard 
square compound for the baby to play in, and 
when not in use it can be folded up and put 
away. 

In every nursery there should be a reliable 
thermometer. Consult it frequently, and see 
that the temperature of the room is not allowed 
to fall much below or rise much above sixty 
degrees. 

Keep a good-sized waste-paper basket in the 

nursery. Teach the children to throw into it 

the bits of paper and other refuse of their play 

71 



The New Century Home Book 

hours. It will give them the habit of neatness 
and cleanliness without an effort, and save 
much unnecessary work for the mother. 

Let each child have a separate bed. The 
best physicians no longer advise allowing chil- 
dren to sleep together. They are apt to be rest- 
less and disturb each other's sleep, and for sani- 
tary and hygienic reasons it is better for each 
child to sleep alone. 

Take pains to see that the child's bed is well 
aired every day. This should not be neglected 
even on the coldest days. In cold weather it is 
wise to open the bed a short time before the 
child's bedtime, so that the body may not be 
suddenly chilled when getting into bed. It is 
dangerous to undress a child after a playspell 
and put him directly into a cold bed. Chronic 
disorders sometimes follow such treatment. 

You cannot be too insistent upon good ven- 
tilation for the nursery. If raising the window 
makes too strong a draught, out of which the 
bed cannot be moved, cut a board about four 
inches high and the length of the window sill. 

Place this under the lower sash. Air will enter 

72 



The New Century Home Book 

the room between the sashes at an upward 
angle, and there will be no draught. 

Do not accustom your children to sleep in a 
room that is lighted. The best and most re- 
freshing sleep requires complete darkness. Let 
no one tell "creepy" stories or give the little 
ones the slightest reason to be afraid in the 
dark. Great patience will be needed to over- 
come the fear of darkness if it once finds lodg- 
ment in a child's mind. It is cruel to force 
such a child to go to bed alone in the dark. 
Fear is no preparation for a sound and re- 
freshing night's sleep. Keason with the child, 
and use gentle means to overcome his fear. 

The last half hour before the children's bed- 
time should be spent quietly, particularly in the 
case of children who are of a nervous tempera- 
ment. A song or a story or reading from a 
child's book will serve to quiet their nerves 
after a playspell and put them in the right con- 
dition for sleeping. 

Let the children sleep. If they sleep late in 

the morning, it is a pretty safe indication that 

they need the sleep. "Early to rise" is a good 

78 



The New Century Home Book 

rule, but it is not an absolute rule. Even when 
coupled with "early to bed" it cannot always be 
followed. If the child sleeps late and it is de- 
sirable to have him waken early, try putting 
him to bed earlier. If he still sleeps late, it is 
Nature's notice that he needs the sleep, and he 
should have it. Sleep is better than medicine. 

The cradle has given way to the crib. It has 
taken mothers a long time to realize that the 
constant rocking of the cradle is very bad for 
baby's brain, but they have finally done so, and 
the cradle has disappeared. In many of the best 
nurseries even the rocking-chair is abolished. 
Its presence offers too strong a temptation to 
rock the baby. Do not allow your baby to be 
rocked to sleep. With a little care and patience 
the child can be taught to go to sleep when 
placed in his bed without any special attention. 
It is better for the child and a great saving of 
time and trouble for the mother. Never have 
feather pillows or feather mattress on the 
baby's bed. 

Every nursery should have a medicine chest 

or cabinet for emergencies. Let it be placed 

74 



The New Century Home Book 

beyond the reach of the children, and it is safer 
to keep it locked, provided the key is always 
where it can be quickly found. Simple reme- 
dies and appliances should be kept in the cabi- 
net. Keep on hand witch-hazel for bumps and 
bruises ; sweet oil for burns ; mustard and flax- 
seed for poultices ; sticking plaster, or a roll of 
adhesive plaster, for the dressing of cuts; ab- 
sorbent cotton ; pieces of cotton and linen cloth, 
and bandages ready for use. Standard reme- 
dies — or your doctor's prescriptions — for the 
more common troubles of children should also 
be in the cabinet. See that each bottle or 
package is carefully labeled, and add to the 

label a statement of what it is to be used for. 

75 



The New Century Home Book 



amueemente for tbe little ©nee 

OIMPLE pleasures are the best for small 
children. Few toys are better than a 
large number. Too many playthings are al- 
most worse than none. The little child with a 
profusion of toys does not appreciate them. 
He will often destroy them, and at the same 
time acquire the habit of wastefulness and ex- 
travagance to plague him in after life. A little 
boy will often leave a room full of toys for a 
hammer, a nail, and a piece of board. A little 
girl will leave all her other playthings for a 
doll. 

You can keep baby quiet and amused for a 
long time by putting in front of him a box or 
basket filled with any kind of articles — buttons, 
spoons, toothpicks, small blocks, etc. — and let- 
ting him take them out and arrange each kind 
of article in a pile, or put them into another 
box or basket. A small board with holes bored 

into it and pegs which easily fit into the holes 

76 



The New Century Home Book 

will amuse almost any baby. Picture blocks, 
building blocks, colored cards, and the like will 
amuse even very young children. Give the lit- 
tle one a box of buttons and a stout piece of 
cord and show him how to "string" the buttons. 

When your little girl is old enough to handle 
a thread and needle let her have them. Do not 
give her needles with broken points, worn-out 
scissors, and thread too coarse for the needle, 
but let them all be as good as you use yourself. 
Let her have little pieces of bright and pretty 
cloth from your scrap-bag and encourage her 
to cut and make clothes for her doll. If she 
asks you to do it for her, give her only hints 
and let her do the work herself. If she has 
really tried and failed, however, then give her 
the necessary assistance. Thus, while amusing 
her, you are teaching her to be self-reliant and 
ingenious. 

When your little boy is old enough to know 
better than put tacks into his mouth let him 
have a small hammer and some large carpet 
tacks and some strips of thin wood. He will 

get a deal of amusement out of tacking the 

77 



The New Century Home Book 

strips together, and he will quickly begin try- 
ing to "make things/' and thus teach himself 
to be "handy" and self-reliant. If he is too 
young to "make things/' he will amuse himself 
driving the tacks into the wood haphazard. 

"I will tell/' says a mother in the Ladies' 
Home Journal, "some of the simple things 
that keep happy and contented our two boys, 
two and four years old. If I wish to keep them 
quiet and off the floor, they will sit happy in 
their high chairs, each with a tablcspoonful of 
dry beans, a bottle and a box, transferring the 
beans from one to the other. If box and bottle 
each have covers, so much the better. Big 
brother tires of this after a while, so I give him 
a handful of toothpicks, with which he will out- 
line houses, cars, the alphabet, etc. 

"Slates or paper and pencils are very wel- 
come to little fingers that only get into mischief 
for want of employment. A shawl hung over 
chairs makes a famous house, and a string 
from chairs to table makes a little clothesline. 
After the clothes are ironed with tiny irons 

they are hung on the chair rounds to air. 

78 



The New Century Home Book 

"A small wooden box acts several parts. 
Sometimes it is a trunk, sometimes an elevator, 
sometimes a bathtub, although big brother can 
hardly squeeze into it, but a listener would 
surely think a bona fide bath was taking place. 
Three chairs side by side make a *^closed 
'lectric ;' one behind the other an ^open ^lectric,' 
with a broom standing up in the middle for a 
trolley. They '^ding, ding!' and buzz, take 
fares, and put on brakes in true style. 

"A bit of dough, rolling board and pin, when 
mamma is cooking, makes very little mess, and 
if the ^pie' can be baked in a little tin cover to 
'save for father,' or 'carry to grandma,' how 
happy the small boys are ! They do imaginary 
cooking in their tiny tin kitchen and play party 
with little dishes. 

"Baby boy has often been happy a long while 
sticking clothespins around the edge of a tin 
pail, and both boys were happy a whole after- 
noon just winding raveled yarn into balls." 

Remember that play is children's necessary 

work. Deprived of it, your little ones cannot 

reach their true development. 

79 



The New Century Home Book 



]furnl0bing tbe Ibome 

[ T OUSE and home play such important parts 
in our lives that too much care and at- 
tention cannot be paid to their furnishings. 
In furnishing the home the artistic side must 
not be neglected. The pleasure of existence is 
enhanced by art in the home. Helping to beau- 
tify the home is in itself a source of pleasure. 

To woman belongs the mission of adorning 
and beautifying the home. It is she who puts 
the house in order and makes it comfortable 
and attractive. Upon her good taste, judg- 
ment, and wisdom one must most rely in 
furnishing and decorating the home. 

"Art," says Dr. Jacob von Falke, of Vienna, 

"refines the manners, diverts our thoughts from 

vulgar things, consoles us for the many troubles 

and discomforts of material existence, and 

raises us above them into a higher spiritual 

sphere. It humanizes us and idealizes our life. 

All this it does by awakening the aesthetic sense 

80 



H 



O 
o 
< 



X 
o 



> 
cr 



2 

ft) 

o 




The New Century Home Book 

m us by increasing our pleasure in beauty and 
our capacity for its enjoyment, and by continu- 
ally providing new food and new objects of de- 
light to satisfy the longings which it has 
created." 

It does not require works of high art to do 
this. The artistic taste can be fully developed 
by beauty in the common, everyday furnishings 
of the home. It is from these objects, indeed, 
that the child receives his first impressions. 
His first glance rests upon them, and they be- 
come his standards in judging of others. In 
the vast majority of cases they are the only 
representatives of art in the home. Their in- 
fluence remains with the child through all his 
after life. 

Do not leave the adornment and arrange- 
ment of your home to the furniture dealer, 
carpet maker, painter, paper hanger, or picture 
seller. The best that either of them can do is 
to follow what may happen to be the prevailing 
style and fashion in his particular trade. The 
result will more than likely be an inharmonious 

grouping of colors and effects, unsatisfactory 
(6) 81 



The New Century Home Book 

to the eye and destructive of that satisfying 
sense of comfort which one always feels on en- 
tering a really artistically arranged and 
adorned room. 

Let your furniture fit your house. If your 
rooms are large, let the furniture be large. If 
they are small, let the furniture be in propor- 
tion. Do not put large pieces of furniture in 
small rooms. Do not lay carpets of large pat- 
terns and brilliant colors in small rooms. In- 
stead, use carpets of neutral colors and small 
patterns. Where two or three small rooms 
communicate it is wise to carpet them alike. 

Buy very little furniture that is useful only 
for ornamentation. Let your furnishings be 
as beautiful as you can, but let them be usable. 
Never buy trashy furniture of any kind. Bet- 
ter have a few pieces of good, substantial furni- 
ture than a houseful of stuff that is constantly 
"giving out" and breaking down. 

If 3^our house is new, postpone papering it 

until it has thoroughly settled. Otherwise you 

must be prepared to repaper it after the walls 

have cracked. If you are living in a small 

82 



The New Century Home Book 

apartment or flat, you should follow only one 
color scheme in the wall paper. The paper in 
connecting rooms should always harmonize. 
Soft, neutral colors are best for living rooms, 
while making the best background for pictures. 
Plain colors are preferable for the paper in 
parlors, libraries, and sitting rooms. Floral 
designs in which gaudy colors are avoided are 
appropriate for bedrooms. 

Have your parlor furniture as costly as you 
can afford, but see that the value is in the ma- 
terial and workmanship rather than in fragile 
and useless "trimmings" that are easily marred 
or broken and quickly worn out. Parlor furni- 
ture should be solid and substantial — and com- 
fortable. A chair that looks so delicate and 
beautiful a visitor fears to use it is worse than 
useless. It mars the pleasures of your home. 

Table and chairs for the dining room 
should also be well built, solid, and substantial. 
If no sideboard is desired, a corner china cabi- 
net may take its place. A molding around the 
wall on which to place ornamental plates adds 

greatly to the attractiveness of the dining room. 

33 



The New Century Home Book 

Avoid heavy furniture in bedrooms. Let the 
bedstead be of metal or light wood that can be 
easily moved about when the bed is being made 
or the room cleaned. Bureaus, dressing tables, 
and washstands should also be light and easy to 
move. 

Give at least as much thought to the furnish- 
ing of your kitchen as to your parlor. Do not 
sacrifice the kitchen to lavish money in the 
drawing room. Let all your kitchen utensils be 
the best you can afford to buy. A good cook 
wants good utensils as well as good materials. 
"The best is the cheapest" is especially true in 
the kitchen. Let the floor be covered with oil- 
cloth or linoleum. Flimsy tables and chairs 
are out of place in the kitchen. A good clock 
is a necessity for the cook. 

Hang pictures in every room. Nothing does 

so much toward furnishing the home. A room 

without pictures is almost like a room without 

a window. Blank walls are melancholy. It is 

not necessary to have expensive pictures. 

Cheap pictures are not always poor. If you 

doubt your own judgment in selecting pictures 

84 



The New Century Home Book 

and have no one to whom you can appeal for 
aid, purchase copies of famous paintings, etch- 
ings, and engravings. These are almost cer- 
tain to be good. Visit an art gallery and note 
how the different kinds of pictures are framed 
and how they are hung. It will help you in 
artistically arranging your own. 

Do not fill your rooms with a profusion of 
bric-a-brac. Be chary of cheap and common 
ware in bric-a-brac. Two or three pieces of fine 
ware will do more to give beauty to a room than 
a score of trashy articles crowded upon table or 
mantel. One or two large vases are better than 
a dozen small ones. One handsome clock that 
keeps good time is better than two or three in 
the same room. 

Potted plants and flowers are great aids in 
the artistic furnishing of the home. Of these, 
as of bric-a-brac, the quantity should not be too 
large. Put one or two growing plants in your 
kitchen. If you keep a servant, the plants will 
aid you to solve the troublesome "help prob- 
lem." If you do your own cooking, you can do 

it better with cheerful surroundings. 

85 



The New Century Home Book 

Where closets are scarce, as often in small 
houses and apartments, a box window seat or 
corner seat may be made a substitute. A box 
couch in the dining room may serve for a table 
linen chest; in the library newspapers and 
magazines may be stowed away in it; and in 
the bedroom it may be used as a chest for 
dresses or lingerie. A shelf placed at a con- 
venient height and hung with a curtain may 
have hooks fastened to the under side for 
dresses. Let the shelf be enameled, and put 
books or photographs upon it. 

The housewife who is striving to make her 
home beautiful should not be forgetful of her- 
self. No matter how beautiful her home may 
be, if she neglects her own appearance, her 
labor will have been in vain. She is out of har- 
mony with the artistic surroundings she has 
created. She destroys the picture. It has been 
well said that "woman should be herself the 

noblest ornament of the ornamented dwelling." 

86 



The New Century Home Book 



flDecbanic6 in tbe Ibome 

T^O be "handy" with the hammer and saw^ 
plane and chisel, and the common tools 
of carpentry, is an accomplishment both pleas- 
ant and valuable. It is especially useful for 
women. The housewife who can drive a nai], 
saw a board, and use a screw-driver without 
calling in a carpenter can do much toward 
beautifying her home without expense. She 
can add greatly to her own pleasures and to the 
enjoyment of those around her. 

There is economy as well as independence in 
knowing how to use ordinary tools. If a caster 
drops off a bureau or table, it will cost nothing 
to replace it if you know how. It will be ex- 
pensive if you must depend upon a carpenter. 
A nail rightly driven will save a loosened shelf 
from falling, yet how many women must call 
for help to drive a nail. A little glue properly 
applied will keep chairs and other articles from 

becoming rickety and falling to pieces, but very 

87 



The New Century Home Book 

many women — and men — must pay a furniture 
dealer to put on the glue. And so on, in a 
thousand and one ways, the knowledge of how 
to use common tools at home will save money 
and temper. 

Keep a tool chest in the home. The more 
complete the assortment of implements the bet- 
ter, but hammer, saw, chisel, screw-driver, 
plane, rule, and carpenter's square should be 
always on hand. 

Let the children learn to use the tools. Let 
them begin carh' — as soon as they are old 
enough to handle the tools without danger of 
cutting or otherwise injuring themselves. Do 
not confine the tool chest to your boys. Why 
should a girl not be as well able to drive a nail 
as her brother? 

Besides its usefulness in keeping in repair 

and good order the things one has at home, the * 

knowledge of using common tools will enable 

one to make a host of articles both useful and 

ornamental for the home. The making of . 

these things will profitably fill up many an } 

otherwise idle hour for young and old alike. I 

88 I 



The New Century Home Book 

There is a cottage home in New England 
every room of which has been largely furnished 
by the handiwork of a daughter who has 
learned to use tools, and at a cost almost too 
small to be reckoned. Her materials were 
boxes, barrels, and pieces of pine boards. Some 
of the contents of this cottage may serve as 
examples of what can be made with a few tools 
at home. 

Two shoe boxes make an excellent window 
seat. They are placed end to end and nailed 
together. The tops of the boxes are hinged to 
the backs, making a covered chest with two 
compartments. Over the top excelsior is spread 
and covered with colored cloth, tightly 
stretched and securely fastened at the edges 
with fancy headed tacks. The front and ends 
are covered with the same cloth as the top. 
Sofa pillows help to make the window seat a 
useful and ornamental piece of furniture. 

Out of two other shoe boxes has been made a 

bookcase for the library. One, standing on end, 

is fastened to the other, which lies on its side. 

A piece of board sawn to slip easily inside the 

89 



The New Century Home Book 

second box rests on cleats of thin strips of wood 
fastened to the ends of the box and serves as a 
bookshelf. The upright box has two such 
shelves. Homemade curtains hang from slen- 
der rods fastened at the top of each box. The 
sides and tops of the boxes are painted with 
enamel paint, and the finished bookcase rests 
on small roller casters. 

Fastened to the wall in the bathroom is a 
medicine cabinet made out of a box in which a 
grocer had received canned goods. The cover is 
hinged to one side, making it a door, and it is 
kept in place by a little snap lock. Shelves 
fastened to cleats inside hold different sizes of 
medicine bottles and increase its capacity. The 
cabinet is painted to harmonize with the wall 
covering. 

In a small room, in which space is very 

limited, is a wall writing desk which takes up 

no room when not in use. Two strips of pine 

wood, each two inches by three feet, are, 

fastened to the wall upright, parallel, and 

about three feet apart. Across the tops of these 

are three shelves, five inches wide, supported 

90 



The New Centtiry Home Book 

on brackets. Between the upper two shelves 

thin pieces of wood are glued for partitions, 

making handy pigeonholes. About four inches 

from the lower ends of the parallel strips, and 

reaching from one to the other, is firmly 

screwed to the wall a strip of wood about two 

inches wide. To this strip is hinged a shelf of 

boards wide enough to just reach to the lower 

shelf at the top of the parallels. On each end 

of this hinged shelf is fastened a small brass 

chain, the other end of which is fastened 

to the upright at the top. These chains 

allow the hinged shelf to drop down like 

the top of a regular writing desk, and it is 

ready for use. When not in use it is turned up 

and caught with a snap lock to the shelf above. 

The strip to which the wide shelf is hinged 

serves as a holder for the inkstand, pens, etc. 

A cabinet for bric-a-brac and a clock rest is 

made from a box twenty-four inches long, eight 

inches wide, and six inches deep. The box, 

painted the color of the woodwork of the room, 

rests on its side on two brackets firmly fastened 

to the wall. Hinged to the top in the center is 

91 



The New Century Home Book 

a small framed mirror, which reaches to the 
bottom of the cabinet. On either side of this 
mirror the bric-a-brac is arranged, and on top 
of the cabinet a clock is placed. 

From the boards of a good-sized dry goods 
box a china closet has been made for the dining 
room. It is about three feet high, a little less 
in width, and five inches deep. Shelves are 
placed at convenient intervals, fastened to 
cleats on the sides, and hooks are screwed to the 
bottoms of the shelves, on which teacups are 
hung. This closet has glass doors hinged to 
the sides, but curtains could easily be arranged 
to take the place of the doors. 

In the family sitting room is a most com- 
fortable armchair evolved from a sugar barrel. 
About one third of the staves were sawn 
through at the right height for the seat and re- 
moved. On each side of the space thus made 
two staves were sawn at the right height for 
side arms and removed. This left a wide 
curved back the height of the barrel. The head 
of the barrel, made stronger by crosspieces 

nailed on the under side, was then hinged to 

92 



The New Century Home Book 

the back and became the seat of the armchair, 
and at the same time the top of a handy book or 
newspaper box. A cushion covered with strong 
cloth was placed upon the seat. The sides and 
inside of the back were covered with excelsior, 
and then the whole barrel, inside and out, cov- 
ered with figured cloth. 

From two flour barrels has been made a most 
comfortable tete-d-tete. Each barrel was first 
cut down and prepared as for a single chair, 
except that no arms were provided. Three 
staves on the left side of each were sawn at a 
height a little above that for an ordinary arm. 
The barrels were then placed beside and facing 
each other so that the sawn staves met, and 
these were fastened together with strips of 
molding. The barrels were also nailed together 
below the seats. Cushions and chair pillows 
made the tete-d-tete complete. 

Another barrel serves as a clothes hamper. 
The top, cleated together, is fastened to the 
barrel with a hinge, so that it becomes a cover. 
The barrel is lined inside with unbleached mus- 
lin secured by tacks, while the outside is cov- 

93 



The New Century Home Book 

ered ^^LIXk dotii oi a dark color, mmed over the 
edges at each end of the barrel and well fas- 
tened with tacks. 

These examples will suggest many other arti- 
cles for the adonmient of the home that may be 
i!i2de with boxes and barrels. Indeed, the field 
::7 :he exercise of one's ingenuity in this 
ic^f-^rct is practic-ally nnlimited. Beautiful 
screens, c-abinets. music racks, and the like c-an 
be made with bamboo, which can be bought for 
little money. Picture frames c-an be made at 
home from moldings which c<^ a mere frac- 
tion of what the dealer charges for the frame. 

Wood c-arving is a c-apital pastime and a use- 
ful octfupaiion for a boy on rainy days when 
out of schooL The nec-essary tools are not very 
expensiTe, and after one or two lessons from 
s^TTue ~::e who understands the art the boy will 
^yjn leam to make many pretty things for the 
home. A small scroll saw will greatly aid the 
diildren in becoming independent of the car- 
penters help in making the more ambitious 

articles of furniture. 

94 



The New Century Home Book 



iSuilMng a "borne 

T^HEEE is an old saying that if yon want a 
house it is better to buy than to build- 
It is a mistaken notion- The true idea is that 
it is better to buy a good house than to build a 
poor one. If you start right in building a 
house, you will rarely fail to come out with a 
home as nearly what you want as it can be 
made, and one infinitely more satisfactory than 
anv house c-ould be in the planning and build- 
ing of which you had no share. 

But you must start right. Xever undertake 
to build a house without the aid of a com- 
petent architect. It is presumptuous to sup- 
pose YOU can do as well with only your own 
unaided judgment as with the help of one who 
has studied and been trained in architectoie. 
You will, of course, have your own very definite 
ideas of what you want your home to be, and 
the architect will be directly guided by these in 

drawing his plans, but for aU the multitu- 

95 



The New Century Home Book 

dinous details in putting your ideas into effect 
3'ou should rely upon the architect. The car- 
penter and builder who combines architectural 
ability with skill in his trade is so rare that you 
need not count upon finding him in your lo- 
cality. 

Almost the first thought in building a suc- 
cessful house is that it shall be in entire har- 
mony with its surroundings. It may be com- 
plete and perfect in every feature of its interior 
and yet, through some unfortunate incon- 
gruity with its environment, prove unsatisfac- 
tory and disappointing. The skilled architect 
will study every feature of the landscape and 
the grounds surrounding the house, and will 
plan outline and general exterior finish and 
appearance to be in exact accord with the land- 
scape. 

The cottage or mansion on the seashore 
wliich seems to you the most beautiful you have 
ever seen would very likely appear common- 
place or positively ugly in an interior valley or 
on a mountain slope. The dwelling that 

pleases the eye when seen nestled in the shade 

96 



The New Century Home Book 

of a forest or on the sloping bank of a winding 
river would probably be almost offensive in its 
incongruity if built along an ocean driveway. 
Having decided to build a house and selected 
your site, give to the architect your general 
ideas and the limit of cost you can meet. 
When he has worked out the details, go over 
with him every item in the plans. Have each 
detail thoroughly understood, and satisfy your- 
self that it is the best. Then stand by the 
plans. Put aside every temptation to make 
changes in the arrangements of rooms, halls, 
closets, windows, or anything else in the house. 
It is costly to make such changes after the work 
of building has begun, and the probability is 
that you will be no better satisfied after the " 
house is finished than you would have been 
with the original arrangement. 

Be chary of running to extremes in seeking 
for novelties in the exterior of your house. 
• An odd feature may be attractive at first, but 
it is very apt to prove unsuitable, and the 
chances are you will tire of it when to remove 
or alter it will be expensive and troublesome. 
(7) 97 



The New Century Home Book 

It is better to be conventional in the general 
outlines than to go too far in an effort to have 
yonr house different from any other. 

It does not follow that no novelty should be 
permitted. Indeed, you will hardly want your 
house to be just like your neighbors' dwell- 
ings, whether in city or village. You can easily 
avoid this without adopting a grotesque design 
or strange ornamentation. In doing this you 
will escape the error in taste of making your 
home too conspicuous. There is a becoming 
modesty in the appearance of a dwelling quite 
as much as in the dress of a woman. 

It costs no more to have your home beauti- 
ful, both in exterior and interior, than to have 
it ugly. Indeed, the house that has been made 
liomely by "freak" features and too much and 
too pretentious ornamentation has generally 
cost more than the house that earns admiration 
for the artistic taste and effectiveness of its 
simple outlines. It is not the money spent 
upon a house that makes it a success. It is the 
cunning grouping of design, material, and sur- 
roundings into one harmonious picture. Far 

98 



The New Century Home Book 

too often the money spent in seeking to make 
a house handsome is worse than wasted in 
ornamentation which spoils the beauty of a 
really good design. The architect should be an 
artist as well as a designer. 

If your house is meant to be a real home 
rather than a mere residence, see that it is sub- 
stantially built. Perhaps the greatest fault of 
the American home builder of to-day is the 
failure to give any thought to those who are 
to come after him, and his consequent neglect 
to erect such a home as his children will long 
to retain. The home "built to last" is a distinct 
gain to any community. Nothing does more to 
enrich and build up communities than the love 
and attachment for the locality of men and 
women whose early homes were there and who 
look upon the old homesteads as the most val- 
ued of all their possessions. Remember this 
when you build your house, and do your share 
toward developing the attachment to locality 
which is too often missing in the American 
character. 

In the purely commercial view, it pays to 
l.afC. ^^ 



The New Century Home Book 

build substantial houses. It is a poor invest- 
ment to put poor material and poor workman- 
ship into a house. If you should desire to sell 
the property at any time, you will find it hard 
to get a return of the original cost, or you will 
have to be content with a smaller increase in 
value than neighboring but better built prop- 
erty shows. If you retain the house, the cost of 
constant repairs made necessary by its poor 
construction will prove a heavy burden and 
ver}^ soon reach beyond the money it would 
have cost to have built in a substantial way. 
The better built the house the less fuel it will 
take to heat it in winter and the cooler it will 
be in summer. 

Do not forget, however, that the very best 
constructed dwelling cannot be long neglected 
without falling into bad condition. The wear 
and tear a house suffers from the elements and 
its occupants never ceases a moment, and every 
house must have constant care if it is to be 
kept in prime condition. Watch the little de- 
fects as they appear. If you promptly cure 

them, the expense will be little or nothing, and 

100 



The New Century Home Book 

you will rarely have any big trouble to meet in 
the house. 

Advise with 3^our architect and the builder, 
and have the interior finish of your house the 
best that you can afford. Let the same fear of 
too much ornamentation govern your ideas of 
the interior as of the exterior. Let the ma- 
terials be of the best, and bear in mind that 
simplicity of detail usually gives the truest 
artistic effects. Reject promptly any proposed 
oddity the sole purpose of which is to make a 
show. If you let freak features into your 
house, you will likely soon tire of them. If you 
decide to sell the house, you must find a pur- 
chaser of exactly your own taste in such mat- 
ters, or, perhaps, be unable to dispose of the 
property at as good a price as if the undesirable 
oddity were absent. 

In planning the interior of your house study 

well the requirements of your family and try 

to meet them to the greatest possible extent in 

the arrangement of rooms, closets, etc. Seek 

the best arrangement to reduce to a minimum 

the labor of the housekeeper. Avoid such an 

101 



The New Century Home Book 

arrangement as will require the housewife to 
run up and down stairs many times a day in 
conducting the ordinary duties of the house- 
hold. Let the kitchen and dining room be so 
located with reference to each other that meals 
may be conveniently served and unnecessary 
steps avoided. A small mistake of judgment 
in matters of this sort will often add serious 
burdens to the home life of wife and mother. 

Pay particular attention to your cellar. A 
vast amount of illness has been caused by im- 
properly built cellars, and by improper care of 
those properly built. Your cellar must, first of 
all, be dry. Insist upon every precaution being 
taken by the builder to insure dryness. 

Then see that the cellar has full and free 

ventilation. If it has windows, let them be so 

placed that they will admit good, fresh air. If 

it is windowless, let holes be made in the walls 

for ventilation. Fit them with gratings to 

keep out rats, cats, and other animals. If your 

house has no cellar, let ventilation holes be 

cut in the foundation walls, so that foul air 

cannot accumulate under the ground floor. 

102 



The New Century Home Book 

Arrange coal and other fuel bins so that the 
fuel can be put in with the least necessary labor 
and time. If the floor is concreted, have a 
chopping block set in the concrete near the 
wood bin. You will find it a convenience 
worth having in splitting kindling wood. 

If the house is heated by a furnace or hot- 
water stove in the cellar, build your vegetable 
and fruit storage bins, shelves, and closets so 
that their contents may not be harmed by the 
heat. It is absurd to put away winter supplies 
where they will be spoiled by their surround- 
ings; yet this is a mistake many householders 

make. 

Be careful whence the furnace draws its sup- 
ply of air. Do not let it be taken from the 
dark cellar. See that the intake pipe com- 
municates directly with the outside air. 

Whether your house is to have running water 
or not, it should have a bath and toilet room on 
an upper floor. If there is no running water, 
pipes may be laid connecting it with a well, 
and the water drawn by a pump in the bath- 
room; or the supply may come from a tank on 



103 



The New Century Home Book 

the roof or in the attic, to which the water is 
pumped. Outside of the sanitary advantages 
of the bathroom, every housewife will appre- 
ciate the convenience and saving of labor in 
having a water supply above the basement or 
ground floor. Finish the walls of the bath- 
room with tiles or some other material that can 
be thoroughly washed without harm. It is well 
to have washable walls also in the kitchen and 
all closets. 

A room on the first floor which can be used 
on occasion as a bedroom is not -found in the 
majority of houses, but it is desirable in all. 
Such a room will often be found a great con- 
venience in the case of sudden illness in the 
family, or when an invalid or an aged person 
who would find going upstairs a task is a guest. 
This room may be furnished with a folding 
bed, and when not occupied as a bedroom it can 
be used as a sewing or sitting room or study 
room for the children. 

The advantages of having a room which can 

be easily isolated from the rest of the house in 

case of the appearance of a contagious disease 

104 



The New Century Home Book 

are so great that you should provide for such a 
room in planning your home. This room 
should be in the upper part of the house, with 
a southern exposure, if possible. It should be 
well lighted, but the windows should have dark 
shades, so that sunlight can be shut out at 
need. Special care should be taken to have the 
room well ventilated. 

This "hospital room" should be provided 
with hot and cold water facilities, if you can do 
so, and a bath and toilet room should be con- 
venient. In whatever way the house is heated 
the room should have a fireplace and grate. A 
grate fire is often the most desirable for heat- 
ing a sick room, and it is a very important fac- 
tor in proper ventilation. 

It goes without saying that the "hospital 
room" need not be reserved exclusively for use 
in cases of contagious or other diseases. It 
ought to be one of the most bright and cheer- 
ful rooms in your home — too pleasant to be 
kept unused most of the time, or, if you are 
fortunate, all of the time. But it should be so 

arranged and furnished that it can be quickly 

105 



Gnuk^onrei into a "bo^it^ room" when the 

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:_- 1_ -" - ^ : " ■ :.z.r > _„ \ : rxym 
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tai eost "linst ttds ia ir ■ — :-- 

eant, ^':l„t "::i«fit ar 
tioB - ' 1" 

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Th-c New Century Home Book 

ceive more careful attention than the plumb- 
ing. Xo matter how anxiously j-ou may ha^e 
to count ever}' doUar your home ooBts, do not 
"scrimp*' in the plumbing work. '^The best is 
the cheapest" applies to nothing more truly 
than to the sanitary appliances of your home. 
Do not let dollars count as against the health 
of your family. 

Xo fanuly h safe if its home is contaminated 
with bad air from sewer or waste pipe. One 
imperfect joint, one improperly placed trap, 
one minute defect in a small pipe, may bring 
illness to every member of the household. 
Sewer gas is a most insidious enemy. It is 
silent, persistent, and deadly. Its mischief is 
often wrought before its presence is suspected. 
Perfect plumbing is the one only way to ward 
off its attacks. 

Insist upon having the best material in aU 
your plumbing arrangements, and that every 
appliance used be of the latest and most ap- 
proved pattern. These will be of no value, 
however, without good workmanship. See to 

it that no part of the work of installing pipes 

107 



The New Century Home Book 

and fixtures is slighted. Let the pipes be ar- 
ranged, as far as the plan of the house will 
permit, so that they can be easily reached when 
repairs are necessary. 

It is a wise precaution to have all the 
plumbing tested at least once a year. Eats 
and mice, the "settling" of the house, or even 
the shaking it may receive from a severe gale 
may affect the pipes, and the slightest defect 
should be attended to at once. 

The great care given to the plumbing for 
the sake of health should be repeated in the 
case of all chimneys and heating flues for the 
sake of safety from fire. It is foolish to build 
a beautiful and costly home and then put into 
it cheap and defective flues, which need only 
the opportunity — sure to come — to destroy the 
whole building. 

It has been charged against Americans that 
they spend more money than any other nation 
in building and get less satisfactory results, be- 
cause they allow "show" to stand in front of 
usefulness. When you build your home try 

to prove the undeservedncss of this charge. 

108 



The New Century Home Book 

What has been said of the building of a home 
applies to the home on the farm as well as to 
the house in village or city. On the farm more 
than elsewhere must the architect pay close at- 
tention to the surroundings and landscape. 
The requirements of no two farmhouses are 
alike. The farmer must determine for himself 
what he and his family need in their new home, 
and then rely upon the architect to help him 
most nearly realize his ideas. 

The water supply on a farm is an important 
factor in determining the site of the house. 
Springs, ponds, creeks, and running streams 
may largely decide the site. The modern wind- 
mill, driven well, and water tower, however, 
have given the farmer a wider field for selec- 
tion, for with their aid the farmhouse may be 
built on much higher ground than would other- 
wise be the case. The windmill, too, enables 
the progressive farmer to have running water 
in his home and to pipe it to the barn and 

dairy. 

109 



The New Century Home Book 



asuilbing anb %om Heeociationa 

T"HE opening of the new century finds build- 
ing and loan associations a highly im- 
portant factor in the building of American 
liomes. These organizations arc known in 
some States as savings and h)an associations, 
and in Massachusetts they arc called coopera- 
tive banks. They have been comprehensively 
defined as "an outgrowth of tlie combined ef- 
forts of many independent individuals pos- 
sessed of limited powers of production, but 
large opportunities to make those powers avail- 
able, to gather into a common fund the surplus 
product of each individual's labor — not for the 
purpose of using this common fund as a lover 
for greater industrial advantage to the com- 
bination, but as a source of supply for a higher 
form of individual life to each member in turn, 
by providing for him and his family a home 
in which greater comfort might contribute to a 

more exalted type of civilization." 

110 





Illustrations on this page are of Cottages erected in the vicinity of New 
York City on the Co-operative Plan. 



The New Century Home Book 

While the first known association of the kind 
was organized in Frankford, Pa., near Phila- 
delphia, in 1831, the real growth and exten- 
sion of the system has been almost wholly in 
recent years. By far the larger number of as- 
sociations now in existence are less than two 
decades old. How rapid and wonderful their 
growth has been is shown by the fact that the 
number in operation in 1900 was 5,485, with 
an aggregate membership of 1,512,685. These 
had assets reaching the enormous total of 
$581,866,170. 

Exactly how many homes have been built by 

the aid of these organizations cannot be told. 

The most reliable estimates, made by officers of 

the United States League of Local Building and 

Loan Associations, place the number at 661,325 

in the eighteen years from 1883 to 1900, both 

inclusive. If each of these homes should be 

allowed a ground frontage of thirty feet, and 

all were placed side by side in a line, the great 

row of dwellings would extend from Bangor, 

Me., to San Francisco, Cal., and one hundred 

and fifty-four miles on toward Hawaii. These 

IIX 



The New Century Home Book 

figures take no account of the so-called "na- 
tional" associations, which are not regarded as 
true home builders, and, indeed, are repudiated 
by most of the local associations. 

It is a conservative estimate that ninety per 
cent of these homes would not have been built 
without the help of the building and loan asso- 
ciations. In this fact lies the secret of their 
great value to the nation. Every new home es- 
tablished adds something to the material and 
the moral welfare of the community and the 
nation. More than half a million new homes 
in less than twenty years mean an advance in 
the well-being of, at the very least, three mil- 
lion men, women, and children, thus adding 
to their value to the state both in increasing 
its wealth and in tending to make them better 
citizens. 

Cooperation is the foundation principle of 

all building and loan associations. If you can 

save from your earnings, say, two dollars a 

month, you can do practically nothing with 

your savings for several years, for the sum will 

be too small to permit of safe investment or to 

112 



The New Century Home Book 

make the "first payment" usually required in 
such a transaction as the purchase of a lot or a 
house. If ninety-nine other persons each able 
to save two dollars a month join you in doing 
so, and all put their savings into a common 
fund, you will have from the first month a sum 
large enough to be put to a remunerative use, 
and by dividing the profits each member will 
receive a return from his savings, which alone 
would have had no earning power. 

Suppose that the wage-earners joining the 
fund agree that it shall be divided and the 
transaction closed when each member's share 
shall have reached two hundred dollars. On 
the face of things this would be at the end of 
one hundred months, but the money paid in 
from month to month has been so invested or 
loaned that it has been earning interest. This 
interest, added to the principal as it accumu- 
lates, brings each member's share up to two 
hundred dollars before he has paid in that 
amount. This may be at the end of seventy- 
five months, in which case the member has paid 

in one hundred and fifty dollars and receives 
(8) 113 



The New Century Home Book 

two hundred dollars. It is obvious that no bet- 
ter use for small savings could be found, nor a 
greater incentive to make such savings. 

If the members of such a fund as that 
described decide to limit the investment of the 
funds to loans to members only, to be used only 
for the purchase or building of homes, they 
have by that decision become a building and 
loan association. 

Suppose you are a member of a building and 
loan association and desire to purchase a house, 
which you can do by making a first payment in 
cash. You borrow this money from the asso- 
ciation at an agreed rate of interest, giving a 
mortgage on the house as security. Both for 
the protection of the fund and in the interest 
of the borrower, who might be tempted to as- 
sume too great responsibilities, the amount you 
may borrow is limited by the association to the 
par value of your shares in the fund. If you 
hold but one share, for example, you may bor- 
row only two hundred dollars. If you are pay- 
ing five shares into the fund, you may borrow 

a thousand dollars, and so on. 

114 



The New Century Home Book 

Having borrowed from the association, you 
must now add to the monthly shares paid in 
the interest on the loan, but as this is paid each 
month the sum is very small and can hardly be 
felt as a burden. Besides, as this interest helps 
to shorten the time in which the shares of the 
association will mature — reach their par value 
— for distribution, you will ultimately get back 
your share of it. When the shares mature the 
association will owe you the amount of their 
face value, while you will owe the association 
the same amount which you have borrowed. 
The accounts thus offset each other and are 
"squared" simply by canceling the mortgage. 

When, with the money borrowed from the 

association, you make the first payment on your 

house, you obtain immediate possession of the 

home. Thereafter the amount you have paid 

for rent is laid aside from your earnings just 

as before, but instead of going for rent it is 

used for paying the balance due on the house, 

and in due season you have your home clear of 

all incumbrance. Thus with the aid of the 

building and loan association you have been 

115 



The New Century Home Book 

able to purchase a home with savings so small 
that you would otherwise have had to wait 
for years for them to accumulate. At the same 
time you have paid virtually no more than 
rent, so that the burden has not been heavy to 
carry. 

This is the operation of a building and loan 
association in its simplest form. In the devel- 
opment of these associations it was soon found 
that more than one member desired to borrow 
the funds the society had to loan. To meet this 
difficulty the system of premiums was adopted. 
Members desiring to borrow offered lump sums 
for the loan, in addition to the regular interest, 
and the one bidding the highest sum gained the 
loan. The premiums thus obtained swelled the 
profit account. Fines collected from members 
who failed to make payments of shares when 
due went into the general fund, while another 
source of profit was found in retaining a part 
of the interest earned by the shares of members 
who withdrew before their shares matured. 

It is evident that the usefulness of building 

and loan associations depends very largely upon 

116 



The New Century Home Book 

the welfare of the industrial classes. Upon 
this, indeed, their very existence depends. 
That they are seriously affected by industrial 
depression has been fully shown in recent years, 
when every period of business depression has 
been marked by a falling off in number and 
membership of associations and the number of 
homes established by their aid. 

In this lies one of the dangers in the way of 
these associations. Sharp competition among 
associations in order to show steady growth in 
spite of "hard times" is a dangerous thing. 
There is the temptation to overvalue land or 
houses upon which loans are made. Many as- 
sociations regard the loaning of funds on un- 
improved lands as so dangerous that they for- 
bid it. 

The primary object of the first building and 

loan associations was not to make money, but 

to provide homes for their members. The fact 

that in practice they did earn money by the 

saving of rents, and thus paid a profit to those 

members who did not establish homes, gave 

rise to another danger to all associations — the 

117 



The New Century Home Book 

organization of associations purely for money 
making instead of home making. Such organi- 
zations as these are constantly taking large 
risks in investments in the hope of getting 
large returns, which is the only inducement 
they can hold out for membership. When one 
of these associations is wrecked by the failure 
of some investment legitimate home building 
associations are injured in the public mind and 
affected by the loss of confidence of those who 
have confused the two classes of organizations. 

The safety of building and loan associations 
is in conservatism. The successful association 
is the one that makes the establishment of 
liomes for its members its first consideration, 
and that discourages the membership of per- 
sons who put in their savings only for profit. 

In several States these associations and their 
members are guarded and protected by the 
laws. This should bo the ease in every State. 
They should be safeguarded by State super- 
vision, as are savings banks, for, like the banks, 
they are designed to make the best use of the 

savings of the people for the people. 

118 



The New Century Home Book 



2)rc66 in tbe Ibomc 

/^ NE of the greatest mistakes you can make 
in the home life is to dress beyond your 
means. You cannot dress too neatly or too 
carefully, but the moment you undertake to go 
beyond your purse you open the door to an end- 
less i^lague of evils. The very first lesson to 
learn in dressing is to keep within your means. 

In obeying this suggestion do not go to the 
other extreme. Do not dress meanly. Dress 
as well as your means will allow. Good cloth- 
ing is a powerful incentive to right living. A 
neat, clean, becoming costume will go a great 
way toward influencing its wearer to be clean, 
neat, and well-behaved. 

In selecting a wardrobe a woman of moder- 
ate means should never forget that the truest 
economy lies in purchasing only good mate- 
rials. Never put shoddy stuff into a garment. 
Goods that are cheap because of poor quality 

are dear when put into a dress which you can- 

119 



The New Century Home Book 

not afford to throw away after wearing only a 
few times. If your wardrobe must be limited, 
let its contents be of the best quality you can 
buy. 

It is easy and not one cent more expensive 
to dress becomingly. Colors and styles in har- 
mony witli your complexion and figure cost no 
more than others which might make a perfect 
fitting dress far from satisfactory. If, for ex- 
ample, you have a sallow complexion, your 
dresses should be of rich, bright colors, while 
if you have a blonde complexion, such colors 
as deep pink, yellow, red, and i)urple should be 
avoided. If you are short, you should wear 
plain skirts ; while if you are tall, the skirts may 
be profusely trimmed with becoming effects. 

If you are stout, narrow-striped goods will 
be more becoming than wide stripes or large 
figures. If you are thin, tightly fitting tailor- 
made dresses, stripes, and dark colors will make 
you appear still thinner. When buying mate- 
rials and making a dress always keep in view 
your figure and complexion, no matter what 

sort of a costume you are preparing. A good 

120 



The New Centory Home Book 

(Ircssnuikor looks at your face and figure first 
of all. 

• Age must also bo considered. Nothing is 
more absurd than for an elderly woman to 
dress like a young girl. It is an equally bad 
mistake for a young woman to dress like a 
grandmother. 

The more limited your wardrobe the more 
advantageous you will find a black dress. Black 
can be worn in all seasons and on all occasions. 
With care in selecting proper accessories — col- 
lars, bows, belts, and the like — one black dress, 
if of good material, can be used for church, 
l)arties, traveling, or visiting, and it is always 
ready for any sudden emergency. A black 
dress, too, lends itself better than one of an- 
other color to the "making over" so necessary 
in the wardrobe of the woman of limited means. 

All dresses — and especially those for evening 

wear — should be kept hanging in costume bags. 

The bag should be of stout muslin and large 

enough to hold the dress without crushing it. 

The sleeves should be stuffed with tissue paper, 

and all bows and laces covered with this paper. 

121 



The New Century Home Book 

Bodices should be kept in dust-proof boxes 
which will hold them without folding. Use 
colored tissue paper in covering laces, etc., be- 
cause white paper so used will often cause 
white goods to turn yellow. 

In packing away clothing for the summer be 
sure that each piece is well cleaned. Moths 
delight in dirty spots. Dresses should be hung 
for some time in the sun. Then the dirt, if 
any, on the bottoms of the skirts should be 
brushed off and the garments thoroughly 
shaken or brushed. Take pains in folding to 
have the dress smooth and folded straight. 
Between each fold sprinkle powdered camphor 
or some oilier moth preventive. The dress 
should be wrapped first in paper and then in a 
muslin bag and laid away in box or trunk. 

Furs should be well dusted and ])rushed, 

carefully folded and wrapped in cotton cloth 

with moth preventive. Additional security 

from moths will be gained by covering the furs 

with paper before they are wrapped in the 

cotton. 

If you possess a cedar chest in which to keep 

122 



The New Century Home Book 

your clothing, you need have no fear of moths, 
provided your clothing has been thoroughly 
shaken and brushed before it is laid away. 
Moths will not go through paper, and a box or 
trunk carefully lined with paper will be proof 
against these pests. If each article in the box 
is wrapped in paper 3^ou have made assurance 
doubly sure. 

Men's clothing will last longer and better 
preserve its shape and fit if it is kept folded 
instead of hanging. Coat, waistcoat, and 
trousers should be well shaken, brushed, and 
folded as soon as taken off. 

To fold a coat, spread it out flat, lining 
down, and turn up the sleeves so that the ends 
are even with the coat collar. Fold the revers 
over the sleeves, and then fold the whole gar- 
ment lengthwise, turning at the middle seam. 
If shelf or drawer is long enough, do not fold 
the tails of the coat. The waistcoat is folded 
once, lengthwise, with the lining out. Trousers 
should be folded by bringing together the waist 
buttons in front, which will bring the legs one 

over the other at the right turn for the crease. 

123 



The New Century Home Book 

Trousers may be doubled over once if necessary, 
but it is better to lay them away with a single 
fold. 

When men's clothing is to be put away for 
the season see that it is carefully aired, 
cleaned, and brushed, as in the case of women's 
dresses. Fold each piece as already directed, 
sprinkle with moth preventive, and wrap in 
paper. 

When you are going to have a dressmaker at 
home you should have everything in readiness 
before her arrival. See that the sewing ma^ 
chine is in first-class order, needles at hand of 
tlie right size for the dress goods to be used, 
and all the articles needed for the dress pro- 
vided. You ought not to have to go to the store 
for thread, buttons, linings, or anything of that 

sort after the dressmaker has begun her work. 

124 



The New Century Home Book 



Sewing in tbe Ibome 

ORTUNATE it is that the new century 
opens with scarcely a trace left of the once 
prevalent idea that sewing is an art which can 
safely be neglected in the home. The advent 



F 



AN OCCASIONAL BACKSTITCH. 



of the sewing machine was undoubtedly at the 

root of this notion. With the sewing machine 

came such wonderfully increased facilities for 

supplying the family with clothing, and all 

other articles in the making of which thread 

and needles are factors, that it was easy to let 

go the home sewing and to let the children 

grow up without the knowledge of the needle 

so necessary in the lives of their grandparents. 

That to do this was a mistake has happily been 

125 



The New Century Home Book 

realized, and a mother may now train her 
daughter to be a good seamstress without fear 
of sneer or criticism from even the most friv- 
olous of the devotees of the tyrant Fashion. 

The advantages of knowing how to sew hard- 
ly need to be mentioned. They are obvious. 
Time, trouble, and money are saved by the per- 



BUNNING. 



son who can use thread and needle. Petty an- 
noyances like rips and tears and loss of buttons 
have little place in such a person's life, which 
is made easier and more pleasant in a host of 
ways by the ability to sew. 

Teach, therefore, your children to sew. Let 
your boys be included in the instruction, at 
least up to a certain point. In every boy's ex- 
perience there are times when to be able to sew 
on a button, darn a stocking, or mend a torn 

garment will save him a deal of inconvenience 

126 



The New Century Home Book 

or annoying embarrassment. Teach your boy 
to do these things. If his knowledge extends 
to sewing on a patch, it will not harm him. 
No man whose mother taught him how to sew 
ever regretted his knowledge or failed to be 
thankful for his mother's thoughtfulness. 
Miss Emma M. Hooper, in an article copy- 




OVERCASTINO A SEAM. 



righted by the Curtis Publishing Company, 
and reproduced, with the accompanying illus- 
trations, by courtesy of the Ladies' Home Jour- 
nal, says : 

"The dainty finish of hand sewing on a gar- 
ment marks its owner as a person of refinement. 
All cannot learn to sew equally well; all may 
learn if they have the will to do so. Have a 
workbasket, no matter how plain it may be, 
as a receptacle for spools of thread and silk, 

thimble, large cutting scissors, and a small, 

127 



The New Century Home Book 

pointed pair for ripping; a measuring tape, 
piece of beeswax, needles of various sizes, a 
little muslin bag for buttons, and a second one 
for hooks and eyes off of the cards. Linen, cot- 
ton, and silk threads all have their use; so do 
twist and the cheap basting cotton, which need 
never be very coarse. For sewing on buttons, 




BASTINO. 

hook and eyes, etc., twenty to forty thread is 

generally used, while fifty to eighty are the 

most used numbers on sewing machines. 

"Select a needle according to the fabric to be 

sewed, and err on the side of fineness. Thread 

the needle with the end of the cotton or silk 

coming first from the spool. Make a small 

knot at the end of the thread, which should 

be about a yard in length. Sewing a seam is 

the first thing taught and requires backstitch- 

ing, running, or overcasting. The latter is 

128 



The New Century Home Book 

used with two selvedge edges, which should be 
basted evenly, using inch-long stitches with an 
equal space between. Then hold the work with 
the left hand and oversew the edges, going but 
two or three threads below the edge and insert- 
ing the needle diagonally, pointing to the left, 
with the stitches close, but not touching over 



FELLING A SEAM. 



the top. Backstitching is one stitch forward 
and the next one back, so as to form a continual 
row of neat and even stitches. 

"Running is done evenly by counting the 
threads, as a stitch of five over the needle, then 
five under, and so on, with an occasional back- 
stitch to keep the seam firmly in place. 

"Felling is hemming down an edge after 

seaming two edges together, leaving one above 

the other. Turn this down narrowly, pressing 

it with the fingers, and then give a second 
(9) 129 



The New Century Home Book 

turning, which should be basted down. Finish 
by hemming the edge. Facing is done by sew- 
ing a strip along an edge, turning it up and 
hemming down the remaining edge. To bind 
with a braid, the two edges of the latter are 
placed one on either side of the article to be 



A FUENCU HEM. 



bound, basted, and then backstitched carefully 

in position. 

"To make a hem necessitates two turnings, 

as a raw edge is not hemmed. To measure a 

hem or tuck, take a piece of cardboard and 

mark off the correct width; by placing this 

against the material and marking the latter 

with a pin the correct turning is easily given. 

When the hem is basted place the needle in the 

single fabric at the doubled edge so that it 

takes a diagonal slant to the left and upward, 

coming out just above the doubled edge; then 

130 



The New Century Home Book 

repeat, putting the needle a trifle in advance 
and beneath where it came out, thus leaving 
diagonal stitches on each side of the sewing. 
A French hem is done by turning and basting 
the entire hem as usual, and then turning back 
this hem to the right side of the work and hem- 
ming as usual. 




A PLAIN DEM. 



"A rolled hem is usually found on ruffles. 
The edge is rolled between the left thumb and 
forefinger until the raw edge is completely hid- 
den, and then hemmed. 

"Even gathers show a running stitch of the 
same size on both sides of the work as for nar- 
row ruffling; the back of a skirt, though, will 
be gathered with the upper stitch twice as long 
as the under stitch. All gathers should have 
two rows of gathering threads, as this makes 

them set more evenly whether they are an inch 

131 



The New Century Home Book 

or a sixteenth of an inch apart; in each row 
the stitches must be the same in position and 
size. To guage or stroke gathers, pull all of 
the fabric gathered up on the thread in a small 
space and fasten the thread over a pin; hold 
these firmly with the left hand and stroke down 
lightly the material beneath each stitch with a 




BLIND STITCHING. 



needle. This gives a beautiful evenness, as 
each stitch is stroked and moved along until 
done, when the thread is loosened and the 
gathers stitched in place. 

"Shirring is simply several rows of gather- 
ing which are confined to a narrow space. 

"Puffing is formed by gathering and then 

sewing the lower row close up to the upper one, 

so as to form a puff between. In puffs and 

gathered ruffles made of thin materials a length 

once and a half as long as the space to be cov- 

132 



The New Century Home Book 

ered is allowed, while for silk or a heavier 
fabric once and a third is sufficient. Both of 
these quantities ma}^ be applied to lace, and it 
is commonly known that a bias-cut ruffle, puff, 
or flounce of any kind sets better when gath- 
ered than a straight one, neither does it take 
as much material. 




GATHERING. 



"To whip on lace, basting is not necessary, 
as it will be well to have the slight fullness 
arising from holding the lace toward you. The 
whipping is simply overcasting the edge of the 
hem and the lace together. 

"Cording is a bias strip with a soft cord 

along the center held by basting stitches until 

applied as a finish, when the close stitching is 

done close up to the cord. Piping is done in 

the same way, leaving the cord out. 

"On woolen goods use letter D silk twist for 

133 



The New Century Home Book 

working buttonholes, and numbers forty or 
fifty thread on muslin, and sixty or even finer 
on thin cotton materials. Do not cut a button- 
hole close to the edge; between a quarter and 
an eighth of an inch is the usual allowance of 
material between the end of the buttonhole 
and the edge of the fabric. Unless you are a 



SEWING ON GATHERS. 



practiced cutter you can hardly make a hole 
straight 'without the regular buttonhole scis- 
sors. Cut a hole that is a tight fit for the but- 
tons, as working enlarges it. After cutting run 
a fine cotton thread all around the hole to keep 
it in shape, and in working take the stitches 
from you. Commence at one end, and let each 
stitch touch. Put the needle in the wrong side 
and bring it out on the right side a sixteenth 
of an inch below the edge of the hole; as the 

thread is drawn up put the needle back in the 

134 



The New Century Home Book 

loop, which gives the buttonhole edge a durable 
and ornamental finish. As the ends are 
rounded spread the stitches a trifle, and when 
done rub with a thimble on the wrong side to 
flatten the work. 




SHIRRING. 



"Eyelets are worked in shirts, shirt-waists, 
evening bodices when laced in the back, etc., 
and are made like a buttonhole, except that 
they are round. Anyone able to embroider 
should make nice, even buttonholes, yet few 
women turn out really perfect examples. Ex- 
perience and patience will accomplish much, 
and I advise working one each day until a per- 
fect buttonhole is made. 

135 



The New Century Home Book 

"The stitches variously known as herring- 
bone, feather, rail, cat, and coral are all first 
cousins, and are generally used on infants' 




A BIAS PIPING. 



wear, lingerie, children's guimpes, etc. These 
are commonly understood. 

^'Smocking is beautiful handwork for yokes 
on children's frocks, blouses, dressing-sacques, 
and tea gowns, and is easy to accomplish. 
Smocking consists of laying small plaits by 
careful measurement, and then catching the 




INSERTING LACE. 



edge of every two together with three over- 
stitches, forming a tiny knot; then passing to 
the third plait, which is caught to the second 



136 



The New Century Home Book 

one of the first two, leaving long, loose threads 
of silk beneath to secure the elastic appearance. 
The next row of knots or catches fastens every 




A BUTTOKHOLB. 

alternate plait, thus forming a kind of a honey- 
comb cell. The knots are often of a contrast- 
ing color of silk. 

"If a button has a metal shank, a hole must 
be pierced in the goods in which to run the 
shank; run a cord through and sew both cord 




SMOCKING. 



and shank in place. If the button has holes 
to be sewed through, remember that the thread 
must not be pulled so tightly that the goods 



137 



The New Century Home Book 

will be puckered beneath. Cross the threads 
as they come through the holes so that they 
form an X on the outside of the button, using 
heavy thread like linen twist or silk twist. On 
a properly made coat or jacket the buttons are 
sewed on before the lining is hemmed down. 
Small, braid-covered buttons require short 
stitches loosely drawn and tightly fastened." 

N"eglect of the sewing machine is responsible 
for a deal of trouble to seamstresses and the 
turning out of much unsatisfactory work. 
Every part of the machine should be kept thor- 
oughly clean. See that it is well covered when- 
ever the room is swept and at all times when 
not in use. Only the best quality of oil should 
be used, and it is well to apply the oil several 
hours before you sew. Then if the machine is 
wiped with a clean cloth just before using it 
there will be no oil to soil the garment you are 

making. 

138 



The New Century Home Book 



Crocbeting in tbe Ibome 

\ 1 7HILE there is almost no limit to the vari- 
ations of crochet work, it is all founded 
on one simple stitch known as the chain. No 
matter how intricate may be the design of any 
given piece of crochet work, its "body" is the 
chain stitch. 

To make the chain stitch is the first thing 
to be learned in crocheting, and the beginner 
should take special pains to make it "just 
right." It is extremely easy to make, but care- 
lessness in the chain stitch will affect the whole 
piece, and failure to keep this foundation even 
and smooth often spoils the beauty of the fin- 
ished article. 

To make the chain stitch make a loop or 

twist in the thread and hold it between the 

thumb and forefinger of the left hand, passing 

the thread over the finger. Hold the crochet 

needle or hook in the right hand in the same 

position as you hold a pen in writing. Pass 

139 



The New Century Home Book 

the hook through the loop, catch the threaa 
and pull it through, making another loop. 
Then pull the thread through the second loop 
just as you did the first, and keep on repeating 
the operation, thus making the chain. 

A double foundation may be made with one 
thread. Make two chain stitches and draw a 
loop through the first. Throw the thread over 
and draw it through both loops. Take up the 
first loop to the left of the thread, throw the 
latter over and draw through both loops. Re- 
peat this until you have whatever length 
foundation you wish. 

To make a double foundation with two 
threads, make a slipknot in each and pass over 
the hook. Carry one thread over the left fore- 
finger and hold the other with the hook in the 
right hand, as in knitting. Make the chain 
stitches first with one thread and then the 
other, and tighten the threads after each stitch. 

The slip stitch is made by inserting the hook 

in each stitch of a foundation and drawing the 

thread through it and looping it in the hook. 

In double crochet the thread is thrown over 

140 



The New Century Home Book 

the hook and a loop taken up through a stitch 
of the foundation. Then the thread is again 
thrown over and drawn through two of the 
three loops now on the hook. Once more the 
thread is thrown, and it is then drawn through 
the remaining loops. This is repeated in every 
stitch of the foundation. 

In single crochet a loop is drawn through a 
stitch of the foundation, and the thread thrown 
over and drawn through both loops on the hook 
at once. 

The treble crochet stitch is the same as the 
double, except that the thread is thrown over 
the hook twice before taking up the foundation 
stitch, and it is thrown over three times and 
drawn through two stitches each time in work- 
ing off. 

One of the most useful crochet stitches is 
the knot. To make it, crochet a chain stitch of 
the required length. Draw up the loop on the 
hook about a quarter of an inch, throw the 
thread over the hook and pull it through. In- 
sert the hook between the drawn loop and the 
thread just pulled through, throw over the 

141 



The New Century Home Book 

thread, and draw through again, thus making 
two loops on the hook. Throw the thread over 
and draw through these loops. Draw tightly, 
and thus form a knot. Draw out the loop on 
the hook and repeat the process, making an- 
other knot, and so on, until 3^ou have a chain 
of knots as long as you wish. Then turn and 
catch in the center of the third knot. Make a 
single crochet between the threads next to the 
knot, then two knots, passing one and catch- 
ing into the next knot. Repeat this until the 
row is finished. Then turn and repeat as from 
the first turn. 

When yarn is used in crocheting it should be 
shrunk. To shrink it dip the yarn into boiling 
water, and then spread it out to dry thoroughly 
in the sunlight or before a stove. 

Directions for crocheting articles are gener- 
ally given in abbreviations. Those usually 
employed are "st" for stitch ; "ch" for chain ; 
"s c" for single crochet; '^d c" for double 
crochet, and "tr" or "tre" for treble crochet. 
An asterisk (*) means that the directions im- 
mediately following it are to be repeated as 

142 



The New Century Home Book 

many times as indicated before going on with 
the next stitches. 

A handsome and useful circular shawl can 
be crocheted by following these directions, 
using eight skeins of material : First row, twen- 
ty tr in ring made by joining four ch. Second 
row, between each group of five tr make a shell 
of eight tr with one tr between. Third row, 
between second, third, sixth, and seventh sts 
of each shell of eight make a shell of six tr with 
one tr between. Fourth row, shell of eight tr 
in each shell of six tr with one tr between. 
Fifth row, same as third. Sixth row, shell of 
six in each shell of six with one tr between. 
Seventh row, same as fourth. Eighth row, 
same as third. Ninth and tenth rows, same as 
sixth. Eleventh row, same as fourth. Twelfth 
row, same as third. Thirteenth and four- 
teenth rows, same as sixth. Fifteenth row, 
same as fourth. Sixteenth row, shell of eight 
in each shell of eight with one tr between 
each shell three times. In every fourth shell 
make two shells of six with one tr between. Sev- 
enteenth row, make shells of eight with one tr 

143 



The New Century Home Book 

between nine times, and in every tenth shell 
make two shells of six with one tr between. 
Eighteenth to twenty-second rows, inclusive, 
shell of eight in each shell of eight with one tr 
between. Finish with picot edge by making 
three ch fastened between every tr by single 
stitch. If two colors are nsed, make the 
eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, seventeenth, 
eighteenth, and nineteenth rows of a different 
color. 

In recent years "canvas crochet" has become 
very popular. It is really crochet embroidery, 
the materials being a crochet hook, wool or silk, 
and the silk canvas employed in needle tapestry. 
Designs for almost any kind of needlework 
may be used, and conventional patterns can be 
purchased traced on canvas. The only differ- 
ence between canvas crochet and ordinary 
crocheting is that in the former there is a foun- 
dation of canvas. The stitches are alike. 

144 



The New Century Home Book 



Iknittlng in tbe Ibome 

|\T0 matter what may be the vagaries of 
fashion, knitting never seems to go en- 
tirely out of date. Knitting machines and 
great mills have done away with the homemade 
stocking and socks, but the knitting needle sur- 
vives, and the great variety of useful and orna- 
mental articles made by the expert hand knit- 
ter are always popular. Fancy articles, caps, 
skirts, bootines, and mitts for the little ones, 
and house jackets, soft shawls, and cloudy head 
coverings for their mothers, never grow old- 
fashioned or unwelcome. 

The first thing in knitting is to '^cast on" 
the yarn. This is done in two or three ways. 
The common method is to make a loop in the 
yarn and slip it on a needle. Then pass a sec- 
ond needle through it. The yarn is thrown 
around the second needle and drawn through, 
and the loop thus formed is slipped onto the 

left-hand needle, which is thrust through it 
(10) 145 



The New Century Home Book 

from the front to the back. The right-hand 
needle is then put through the second loop, and 
another loop is made as in the first case and 
slipped upon the left-hand needle. This is re- 
peated until as many stitches as you wish are 
on the needle. 

Another method of easting on calls for only 
one needle. The yarn is held under the third 
and fourth fingers of the left hand, and the 
needle is held with the right hand. With this 
hand carry the yarn from under the left thumb 
up and over the thumb, over the forefinger, 
under it, and up over the thumb. Pass the 
needle under the crossing back of the yarn 
brought down from the forefinger, draw it for- 
ward to the left, and seize the crossing with the 
thumb and forefinger. With the right hand 
throw the yarn over the needle and draw a loop 
through. Slip the yarn from the left fore- 
finger and draw it to the stitch on the needle. 
Put the yarn as at the start and repeat. 

Having cast on the yarn, to do plain knitting 

you simply pass the right-hand needle through 

the first stitch, throw the yarn around it and 

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The New Century Home Book 

draw through, forming a loop or new stitch. 
This is done for all the stitches on the left- 
hand needle. 

'Turling" in knitting is the same as seam- 
ing. To purl, the yarn is thrown in front of 
the right-hand needle, instead of its usual 
place at the back. The right-hand needle is 
passed under the next stitch from right to left, 
which brings it in front of the left-hand needle, 
instead of back of it. The yarn is thrown 
around the right-hand needle, but the loop is 
drawn backward instead of forward. This is 
repeated as many times as necessary, and the 
yarn is then thrown back of the needle as in 
ordinary knitting. 

Widening in plain knitting may be done by 
knitting a plain and purled stitch of the same 
loop without slipping the loop until both are 
made. Another way is to knit one out of the 
front and one out of the back of the same loop. 
A third method is to take up and knit as a 
stitch the bar of yarn between the needles. To 
widen when purling, the yarn in front of the 
needle must be wound entirely around it. 



14' 



The New Century Home Book 

To narrow, pass the point of the right-hand 
needle under two stitches at once, throw the 
yarn over and draw the loop through both. 
Another way is to slip one, knit one, and pass 
the slipped stitch over the knitted one. To 
narrow when purling, purl two together. An- 
other method is to purl one and put it back on 
the left-hand needle, draw the next stitch over 
it, drop the drawn stitch off the needle, and 
slip the first stitch back upon the right-hand 
needle. 

As in crocheting, directions for fancy knit- 
ting are generally given in abbreviations, of 
which this is the key: "k," knit plain; "p," 
purl; "pi," plain knitting; "n," narrow; "k 2 
to," knit two together; "th o," or "o," throw 
yarn over needle ; "si," slip a stitch ; "si and b," 
slip and bind. An asterisk (*) has the same 
meaning as in crocheting. 

A useful shoulder shawl is thus made from 

fine Shetland wool : Cast on any number of 

stitches divisible by six and add two extra at 

each end for edge stitches. First row, o, k 1, 

0, k 1, si 1, k 2 to, pass slipped stitch over 

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The New Century Home Book 

knitted, k 1, repeat. Second and all even rows, 
purl. Third row, o, k 3, o, si 1, k 2 to, pass 
slipped stitch over knitted, repeat. Fifth row, 
k 1, si 1, k 2 to, pass slipped stitch over knitted, 
k 1, 0, k 1, 0, repeat. Seventh row, si 1, k 3 to, 
pass slipped stitch over knitted, o, k 3, o, re- 
peat. Eighth row, commence again from first 
row. 

Woolen yarn should be shrunk before it is 
used in knitting. Dip it into boiling water and 
let it dry in the sun. If the yarn is thus treated, 
the articles made from it can be washed with 
little shrinkage. 

In washing knitted woolen goods use castile 
soap and lukewarm water. Add a little borax 
to the suds. Soak the articles without rub- 
bing them, squeeze gently, rinse in lukewarm 
water, and squeeze as dry as possible without 

wringing. Dry as rapidly as possible. 

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The New Century Home Book 



j£mbrolt)er? in tbe Ibome 

I N embroidery, as in all other fancy needle- 
work, the first thing to remember is that 
decorative work of any kind is to be seen — not 
covered up. Many persons forget this in em- 
broidering. In a table doily or a lamp mat, 
for example, the chief figure and .most beauti- 
ful part of the embroidery should not be in the 
center of the article, where plate or lamp will 
cover it out of sight wlien it is in use. Yet it 
is a common tiling to see sucli articles with all 
the beautiful ])arts where they must be hidden, 
and the edges, the only parts seen, left ])lain. 

The fitness of tilings must also be kept in 
mind. We hang pictures on the wall to be seen 
and admired. Why should an embroidered 
picture be used for the seat of a chair or the 
back of a sofa, where it will be sat upon or 
leaned against? Dr. von Falke tells of a 
woman who embroidered a ])eautiful portrait 

of her husband for the seat of a chair, and it 

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The New Century Home Book 

was so used until some one pointed out to her 
that she was not paying her husband the honor 
she had intended, but quite the contrary. Keep 
this matter of the fitness of things in view 
when embroidering for sofa pillows, traveling 
bags, headrests, table linen, etc., and your work 
will be more satisfactory. 

Linen is by far the best material for the 
background of embroidery. It will last longer 
and wear better than other fabrics, and it is 
equally adapted for coarse work or the finest 
designs. It is the only good material for pieces 
that may need to be laundered. 

Unless you are an expert it is unwise to try 
to embroider on linen held in the hand. "Puck- 
ering" is almost certain to mar such work. 
The linen should be stretched over a hoop or 
frame. If held in the hand, be sure that it is 
not held over the finger on the bias. 

Colors to be used in embroidering must, of 

course, depend upon the design and upon the 

taste of the individual. In general, only light 

shades should be used in dainty designs. Light 

blue is effective on a white ground, and white 

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The New Century Home Book 

looks well on a light pink background. Use 
great care not to twist or roughen the em- 
broidery silk or floss, and do not let knots show 
in the outline. 

Tulle embroidery is worked with floss silks 
upon fine black or white tulle. It is admirable 
for trimmings. Select an easy outline crewel 
work or embroidery pattern, trace it out upon 
pink paper muslin, and baste the tulle to the 
paper muslin. Thread a fine darning needle 
with floss, and run this along so as to trace out 
the pattern with a run line. Darn the floss 
into the tulle to fill in any parts of the design 
that are thick, and work two or three run lines 
close together to make stalks or any prominent 
lines. 

Velvet work consists in outlining upon em- 
bossed velvet with gold thread flowers and 
arabesques, and filling in the center of such 
parts with satin stitch worked in colored 
filoselles. Select a deep and rich-toned piece 
of embossed velvet and couch along every out- 
line of the embossing two threads of Japanese 

gold thread; then take two shades of green 

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The New Century Home Book 

filoselle of the same color as the velvet and fill 
in the centers of any flowers or geometrical 
figures with long satin stitches. 

Sabrina work consists in cutting out, either 
from colored velvet, velveteen, satin, silk, cloth, 
serge, or washable materials, whole or single 
petals of flowers, leaves, or conventionalized 
flower patterns and affixing these pieces to col- 
ored cloth or white linen backgrounds with 
wide-apart buttonhole stitches. Such parts of 
the design as are too small to be cut out are 
worked with chain or crewel stitch upon the 
background. 

Select an outline crewel design composed of 

small leaves, fruit, or flowers with tendrils, and 

trace it out upon linen or oatmeal cloth, 

should it be required to wash. Cut out the 

various shapes of the pattern in cardboard, and 

lay these upon the pieces which are to form the 

design. Cut out these pieces very carefully 

with sharp scissors, as upon their accuracy the 

neatness of the work depends. Baste the pieces 

down upon the foundation in their places, being 

guided by the traced design, and then button- 

153 



The New Century Home Book 

hole around each piece with wide-apart stitches 

with ingrain cotton or silk. Work the stems 

and connecting stalks or tendrils of the design 

with the same silk and in chain stitch, and 

ornament the centers of the flowers with peach 

knots and satin stitches. 

Just as flowers and growing plants are always 

appropriate decorations for the dinner table 

or at luncheon, so floral designs never lose their 

popularity in draperies for the table. The 

variety of such designs for centerpieces, doilies, 

etc., is practically unlimited. The housewife 

who is fortunate enough to have several sets of 

draperies in different floral designs can add to 

the attractiveness of her table by having the 

real flowers and the embroidered linen match in 

kind and color. 

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The New Century Home Book 



plants anb ]flower6 in tbe Ibome 

1\T room in the house should be without its 
flower or growing plant. Do not be con- 
tent with the furnishing of your home until 
plants and flowers are included. They do more 
than any other one thing to brighten the home 
and its surroundings. And there is not a 
home in the land so poor that it cannot have a 
flower or plant. 

You cannot learn all about growing flowers 
in any book. A great deal of useful informa- 
tion may be had from books on floriculture, 
but an ounce of practical experience with the 
growing flowers in house and garden is worth 
several pounds of book instruction. Each 
plant and flower has its own peculiarities. To 
reach the best results these peculiarities must 
be carefully studied. Of two flowers of the 
same family one will thrive best in the hottest 
sun, and the other needs only half as much 

bright light. One will need a great deal of 

155 



The New Century Home Book 

water and the other only a little. If raised 
in the house, one will require a small but deep 
pot and the other a broad and shallow one. 
Success in flower growing depends upon find- 
ing out what treatment your plants call for 
and seeing that they get it. 

While all flowers and plants need air and 
light, there are numerous handsome varieties 
which do not demand strong sunlight, and it 
is not necessary to confine your indoor plants 
to rooms open to the sun. You may have as 
attractive an indoor garden around a sunless 
window as where the sun shines brightly. 

The length and width of boxes for a window 
garden must depend upon the size of the win- 
dow. Let them be as long and as wide as the 
sill will allow. They should be from eight to 
ten inches deep. Shallow boxes do not give 
root room for deep-growing plants. 

Consult your own taste as to the material for 
the boxes, remembering that flowers will flour- 
ish as luxuriantly in a box made out of cheap 
pine boards as in a costly box of hard wood or 

tile. Many florists think wooden boxes prefer- 

156 



The New Century Home Book 

able. • Bore small holes in the ends, near the bot- 
tom, for drainage purposes. If of wood, paint 
the boxes to harmonize with the woodwork and 
wall covering of the room. Elaborate decora- 
tion is not necessary. It will be covered np by 
the much prettier decoration of the plants 
themselves. 

Do not fasten flower boxes to window or 
wall. Let them rest on the sill and firm 
brackets or stands. You should be able to 
easily lift and turn them or shift their posi- 
tion to another window. Many persons do not 
plant flowers directly in the boxes, but keep 
them in pots set in the boxes. This enables an 
easy rearrangement of flowers or plants when- 
ever desirable, and permits turning any one 
without turning all the other plants in the box. 
Most flowering plants grown in the house need 
to be turned occasionally to insure symmetrical 
growth. In reaching toward the light they will 
grow out of shape if left too long in one posi- 
tion. 

All flowers planted in the same box must 

have practically the same treatment, no mat- 

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The New Century Home Book 

ter what may be best for each individual plant. 
In watering, especially, all must share alike, 
though one plant may not need nearly as much 
moisture as its neighbor. Where pots are used 
this difficulty is entirely avoided. 

Let the soil for all your boxes be rich and 
light. Bonemeal makes an excellent fertilizer 
for poor soil in boxes or pots. The earth 
should not harden into cakes after watering. 
If it does, put in enough coarse sand to lighten 
it. The bottom of the box should have a layer 
of coarsely broken charcoal to serve as a foun- 
dation for the soil and to assist in drainage. 

If you decide to plant in boxes, be careful to 
select for each box such varieties as require 
about the same conditions of soil, light, and 
moisture. Plants calling for strong sunlight 
should not be placed in the same box with 
those thriving best in half-light, nor should 
flowers requiring a great deal of water be in 
the same box with those liking a dry soil. 

The box on the window sill is the simplest 

form of the indoor flower garden. It is the 

foundation for a floral bower that may be ar- 

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The New Century Home Book 

ranged in a countless number of pretty and 
effective designs, just as your taste and fancy 
may dictate. Brackets and swinging shelves 
on eiach side of the window may carry flowers, 
plants, or vines trained in any way you wish. 
Trellis work may be carried all around the 
window, on either side, or simply overhead, 
rounded, pointed, arched, or squared, and cov- 
ered with running vines. Hanging baskets 
may be suspended from top or sides to help 
complete a charming floral picture. If the 
window is large, a shelf for plants may be run 
across the center, from side to side, without 
shutting out too much light. One of the great- 
est pleasures in raising flowers in the home is 
in designing artistic window gardens and in 
arranging each plant so that it shall do its full 
share in adding to the beauty of the whole. 

Individual taste, too, must select the flowers, 
plants, and vines to be used. Sun-loving plants 
cannot be expected to do well in windows where 
the sun does not enter, nor can flowers which 
droop in bright sunlight be successfully used if 

placed where the sun pours upon them. 

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The New Century Home Book 

If your indoor garden is in a window having 
a southern exposure, roses, geraniums, helio- 
tropes, fuchsias, and similar flowers will rarely 
fail to give the best results. In general, all 
high-colored flowers are suitable for a sunny 
window garden. 

For a garden in a shady window primroses, 
hyacinths, calla lilies, white azaleas, and be- 
gonias are some of the flowers most likely to be 
successful. Nearly all varieties of ferns thrive 
in a sunless window, and most of the palms and 
the common rubber plant do well in such a 
garden. 

Nasturtium, asparagus, and smilax are ef- 
fective running vines for window gardens. 
Morning-glories, if given proper trellis sup- 
port, add greatly to the beauty of a garden. 
Beautiful borders for window boxes can be had 
by planting sweet alyssum and mignonette. 
Acorns planted in wet moss in a shallow dish 
are very decorative. They need plenty of 
warmth and grow very rapidly. 

Saxifrage, moneymusk, and othonna are ex- 
cellent plants for hanging baskets. A coarse 

160 



00 
a> 

•^ 

o 
o 

B 

PC 

o> 

M 

a. 
a 

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O 
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The New Century Home Book 

sponge, dampened and sprinkled thickly with 
flax, mustard, or clover seed, will become a 
very pretty hanging garden if suspended by a 
string in the window. 

Bulbs for flowers for the winter window 
garden should be planted in September or early 
in October. This will bring them into blossom 
for the Christmas holidays. The Easter lily 
and freesia should be potted in August. See 
that the soil is rich. Give it a thorough water- 
ing after planting the bulb, and set the pot 
away in a dark closet or in a dark place in the 
cellar, and let it alone for six or eight weeks, 
except to give it a little water if the room in 
which it is kept is very dry. The bulb must 
be thoroughly rooted before the plant is brought 
to the light. Freesias, hyacinths, narcissus, 
and daffodils are easy bulbs to grow. 

Plants raised from seed are likely to be fully 

as vigorous as those from cuttings, and are 

much more likely to be free from disease. Some 

of the best flowers for the home in winter, 

raised from seed, are the sweet alyssum, 

mignonette, dianthus, stocks, and primrose. 
(11) 161 



The New Century Home Book 

Flowers from cuttings that may be best 
raised for the winter window garden are ver- 
benas, carnations, geraniums, roses, heliotropes, 
lantanas, ageratums, and coleus. To root these 
plants place the tender ends of the branches 
in sand and keep the sand well moistened. 
After they have rooted cut the tips and place 
the new plant in a pot filled with good, rich 
soil. As the plants grow keep them well 
pruned back to give them shapely forms and 
induce a strong new growth. 

In a general way what has been said of the 
indoor garden equally applies to the outdoor 
window garden — the only outdoor garden that 
many dwellers in cities can have. There is the 
same opportunity for the judicious selection of 
plants and flowers, with a much longer list of 
flowers in summer from which to make your 
choice, and the same chance for plain or elab- 
orate designs, with the window box as the base. 

In most large cities the great majority of 

dwellings have only small back yards available 

for flower raising, and these are often so very 

small that there is really no room for a flower 

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The New Century Home Book 

bed. Yet even in these restricted spaces a little 
care and ingenuity will bring about astonishing 
results. 

A small tub containing some quick-growing 
vine placed on top of the post which holds up 
the clothesline will turn the post into a thing 
of beauty. Running vines planted at the foot 
of the post will add to its attractiveness. Tall 
flowers, like hollyhocks and sunflowers, can be 
planted close to the fence, where they will 
please the eye without taking up needed room. 
Barrel hoops may be fastened to the fence in 
such a way as to make, when covered with vines, 
a canopy under which a seat may be placed in 
pleasant weather. By planting tall flowers near 
the fence, medium growers Just in front of 
these, and smaller plants in front of the latter, 
you can get the effect of a large surface of 
flowers with only a few inches of actual space 
taken up in the yard. 

Scores of other effective ways of utilizing 
the small back yards in beautifying your sur- 
roundings will be sure to suggest themselves if 

you will give the matter a little study. Do not 

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The New Century Home Book 

neglect the back yard. The view from the rear 
windows of a home in a city block is not apt to 
be inviting at its best. You can do much to 
make it attractive by making a garden of your 
back yard, and in thus giving pleasure to your- 
self you will be adding to the pleasure of your 
neighbors whose windows look out on your 
yard. Often, too, your back yard garden will 
induce your neighbors to improve their yards, 
so that the whole interior of a block may be 
made beautiful and the pleasures of home life 
enhanced. 

One of the most frequent causes of failure in 
raising flowers in the home is improper water- 
ing of the plants. The most common mistake 
is to give too little water. While plants differ 
greatly in the amount of moisture they require, 
it is easier to give them too little than too 
much. It is not enough to merely moisten the 
surface of the soil in box or pot. The earth 
should be saturated all through, so that the 
lowest root of the plant may get its share. 

Do not let the soil harden or "cake" after 

watering. It should be kept loose. If the 

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The New Century Home Book 

plant is one having a mass of roots, run a stiff 
wire through the earth three or four times be- 
fore watering, so as to form little channels for 
the water to penetrate the mass. 

Do not try to water plants by putting 
water in saucers to be drawn up through the 
bottom of the pot. The plant will get very little 
of it, for most of the water will evaporate. 

Do not water the roots alone. The leaves of 
a plant and the petals of a flower need water 
as much as the roots. Dust and dirt clog the 
pores of leaves and prevent the plant from get- 
ting the most good from air and moisture. 
Sprinkle the leaves and flowers well every time 
you water the plant. The under side of leaves 
should also be occasionally moistened. This 
can be done with a gardener's syringe. In the 
case of plants with large leaves it will pay to 
lightly wash the leaves with a wet sponge. 

In watering house plants use water of the 
same temperature as the room in which they 
are kept. Eain water is the best. Spring 
water should not be used unless it has been ex- 
posed to the sun several days in shallow vessels. 

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The New Century Home Book 

When there is a hard rainstorm the ground 
becomes thoroughly soaked, and every part of 
the outdoor plant gets a drenching, but the 
rain does not destroy the plant. Remember 
this when you are watering your house plants. 
Remember, also, that a good soaking is much 
better for the plant than frequent wettings 
with only a small quantity of water at a time. 

In constructing a greenhouse it is wiser to 
consult a builder of experience than to rely 
upon your own judgment. The house should 
have a southern exposure if possible. Other- 
wise let it face the east. A western exposure 
is not desirable. A northern exposure will 
make the greenhouse a failure. If the sides 
are of glass, it is well to use double sashes. 
Glass thick enough to withstand falling hail 
should be used for the roof. Great care should 
be taken to so arrange the ventilators that 
plenty of air can be admitted from the outside, 
but it must not be permitted to strike the 
plants in a draught. 

If your home is heated by steam or hot water, 

it is a simple matter to extend the pipes into 

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The New Century Home Book 

the greenhouse. Oil stoves are regarded as ex- 
cellent independent heaters by many florists. 
Moist air is a necessity in the greenhouse. If 
hot air from a furnace is used for heating the 
greenhouse, special care must be taken to pre- 
vent the air from becoming too dry. What- 
ever may be the heating arrangements, water 
should always be kept where it can evaporate 
in the greenhouse. 

The temperature of the greenhouse should 
not fall much below seventy-five degrees, nor 
go above eighty degrees. A bright winter sun 
will raise the temperature to this height in the 
middle of the day, and you should regulate 
your artificial heat accordingly. 

Beware of sudden changes of temperature in 
the greenhouse. If the air gets too warm, do 
not let in a rush of cold air, but open ventila- 
tors so that the cooling will be gradual. If the 
house is too cold, let in the heat by slow degrees 
rather than all at once. Plants are extremely 
sensitive to sudden changes of temperature. 

If you are so fortunate as to have a porch or 

veranda with a southern exposure, it can be 

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The New Century Home Book 

easily turned into a winter home for plants by 
inclosing it with glass. It will not have all 
the advantages of a greenhouse, but it will 
make an excellent substitute, and the labor and 
cost of constructing it will be much less. If 
the inclosed porch opens from a room in which 
a fire is kept, it will probably not need an in- 
dependent heating apparatus. As in the regu- 
lar greenhouse, the sides should have double 
sashes and should be air-tight. No air should 
get into greenhouse or plant room in winter 
except through ventilators. The same general 
rules apply to the inclosed veranda as to the 
greenhouse. 

To make a home fernery take five panes of 
glass of equal size — four for the sides and one 
for the top. Fasten them together like a box 
with a light wooden frame. Take any shallow 
tin dish, like a baking pan, the size of the box. 
Scatter in the pan small stones — broken pieces 
of rock rather than pebbles — and put in leaf 
mold from the woods, such as the ferns and 
wild flowers grow in. Then collect from the 

woods small ferns and transplant them into 

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The New Century Home Book 

the pan, spreading the roots over the stones 
carefully and covering lightly with the mold. 
Wild strawberry plants and partridge vines 
may be planted with the ferns. Around the 
edges put moss gathered where the ferns were 
found. A miniature lake may be represented 
by a small piece of looking-glass the edges of 
which are concealed by tiny shells and moss. 

Sprinkle the plants and moss thoroughly and 
put over the dish and its contents the glass 
cover, and your fernery is complete. Keep it 
in a shady place for a few days until the plants 
have had time to become well rooted. It should 
be kept from hot sunlight at all times. A 
few minutes in the sunlight each day will be 
enough for the ferns. Keep the plants moist, 
but not too wet. 

A rockery in the center of a lawn is usually 
a disappointment because it is out of place. It 
advertises too glaringly that it is an imitation 
of Nature. It should be in a retired spot, if 
possible, and not too close to the house. The 
larger the stones the better. Their arrange- 
ment must be left to individual taste. The 

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The New Century Home Book 

more carelessly they are thrown into a pile the 
more natural will the rockery appear. 

Do not be sparing of earth in the rockery. 
A heavy storm will often wash away much 
needed earth from a new rockery, and this 
should be promptly replaced. Wild vines and 
ferns should be liberally planted in the rockery, 
and as these do better in the shade the pile 
should be where it is shaded by trees or bushes. 

The clematis is a good vine for a rockery, as 
it is a strong and rapid grower, and its flowers 
add to its attractiveness. The American ivy 
is another desirable vine. Wild flowers such as 
are found among rocks in shady places may be 
transplanted to the rockery with little trouble. 

Beautiful outdoor beds may be made by 
transplanting wild flowers. Nearly all kinds 
of these flowers will bear replanting if care is 
used in taking them up not to shake the earth 
from their roots. They may be taken at any 
season, even when in full bloom. Wild cle- 
matis, the moccasin flower, Jack-in-the-pulpit, 
violets, honeysuckles, and nearly every variety 

of ferns are easily transplanted. 

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The New Century Home Book 

Sudden changes of temperature are nearly 
as bad for outdoor plants as for those raised 
in greenhouses. Do not wait until cold weather 
to bring in the plants you wish to keep indoors. 
Carry them into the house some time before 
fires are lighted in the fall, so that they may 
become accustomed to the change without being 
first subjected to artificial heat. Be sure that 
they have an abundance of fresh air and light. 

Do not keep your plants in painted pots. 
The paint closes up the pores of the clay and 
keeps air from the roots, while keeping in too 
much moisture. 

Do not take the plants out of their pots when 
you put them outdoors in the spring or early 
summer. If you do, you will have to repot 
them in the fall, and thus disturb their roots 
at the time when they need all their strength to 
prepare for the winter. 

If your home is heated by steam, water 

should be kept evaporating on the radiators in 

rooms where plants are kept, and the plants 

should be sprinkled more often than when 

other means of heating are employed. . 

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The New Century Home Book 

Of all the nonflowering plants for the home, 
palms and rubber plants are probably the most 
popular. Palms, especially, lend themselves 
better than any other plant to decorative pur- 
poses. 

In growing palms the pot is an important 
element of success. It should be much deeper 
than its width, for palm roots grow downward 
instead of spreading out. The soil should be 
quite rich, but not so light and porous as to let 
the roots dry too quickly. An excellent soil is 
made up of equal parts of garden loam, coarse 
sand, and rotted sod. There should be a good 
layer of broken charcoal at the bottom of the 
pot for drainage, and this should have a cover- 
ing of florist's moss to keep the charcoal from 
becoming clogged with the earth after water- 
ing. Bonemeal may be used as a fertilizer, but 
with the soil mentioned very little fertilizer 
will be needed. 

Care must be taken in watering palms to see 
that the soil is thoroughly saturated, so that the 
roots are reached. Mere surface watering does 

no good. Palms like plenty of moisture, but 

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the earth in the pot should not be turned into 
mud. The frequency with which palms should 
be watered depends on the air of the room. 
Water them when the soil is dry. If the plant 
stands in the sunshine, it is apt to need water 
daily in warm weather, while in winter two 
or three times a week will be enough. 

Palms are such slow growers that a plant 
rarely needs to be transplanted to a larger pot 
oftener than once in two years. In repotting 
disturb the roots as little as possible. Set the 
roots with the old earth around them in the 
center of the new pot and fill up with new 
earth. Pack the new soil firmly, so that it will 
not be more porous than the old and thus drain 
water away from the roots. Keep the surface 
of the soil at the point where roots and stem 
unite. 

The pot for the rubber plant should be quite 
large. An eight-inch pot is none too large for 
a plant two feet high. Drainage should be pro- 
vided for as in the palm pot. The rubber plant 
needs a richer soil than the palm. It will thrive 

in a soil composed of three parts of garden 

173 



The New Century Home Book 

loam, two parts of leaf mold, one part of coarse 
sand, and one part of partly rotted manure. 
It is well to add a little bonemeal to the earth 
in the winter. Water your rubber plant as you 
do your palm, and in repotting it use the same 
care to avoid disturbing the roots. 

One of the best homemade insecticides for 
use in the plant room is an emulsion of kerosene 
oil and milk. Take a given quantity of slightly 
sour milk and twice as much kerosene oil. 
Churn the milk and oil together until they 
unite in a thick jelly. It will take a long shak- 
ing or churning to bring this about. To one 
part of the jelly add fifteen parts of water and 
apply this to the plants in a fine spray, taking 
care that it reaches all parts. 

Another good insecticide is made by soaking 
tobacco stems and leaves in hot water until the 
water turns to the color of weak tea. Spray the 
plants with this water, or dip them into it. 

Insecticides are useless against the little red 

spiders that so often infest plants. The one 

sure remedy for these is water applied to every 

part of the plant. It is sometimes well to dip 

174 



The New Centttfy Home Book 

the plant into the water for ten minutes at a 
time. Eed spiders on a plant are a certain 
sign that there is too little moisture for the 
plant in the air. 

Limewater is the best remedy for worms in 
the soil in pots. Put about half a cupful of 
fresh lime in about three quarts of water. Let 
all the lime dissolve that will, and then pour 
off the water and use it to thoroughly saturate 
the soil. It can be applied as many times as 
necessary to kill all the worms without any 
harm to the plants. 

Violets worn in a corsage bouquet may be 
kept fresh and odorous for several days by 
wrapping the stems in a thin fringe of cotton 
batting that has been dipped in salt water and 
then rolling them in a strip of tinfoil. When 
the violets are not being worn keep them with 
the stems in a glass of salt water in a cool room 
and cover the blossoms with tissue or oil paper. 
Water in which mignonette has been placed 
should be changed often, for it quickly be- 
comes foul. Do not mix heliotropes with other 

cut flowers in water. They decay very quickly 

175 



The New Century Home Book 

and will harm the other blossoms. Cut flowers 
that have become wilted may be freshened by 
clipping the ends and dipping the stems into 
hot water for a few moments. 

The perfume of any flower can be easily ob- 
tained if you have an abundance of the blos- 
soms. Pick the blossoms without stems and 
drop them into a jar half full of olive or almond 
oil. Let them stand twenty-four hours, and 
then put them into a coarse cloth and squeeze 
them dry over a bottle of oil. Add fresh flowers 
and repeat the operation until the required 
strength is obtained. Then mix the oil with an 
equal quantity of pure spirits. Shake the mix- 
ture every day for three weeks, and then it may 

be bottled ready for use. 

176 



The New Century Home Book 



Birbe in tbe Ibome 

"n lEST in the list of song birds for pets in 
the home stands the canary. Few pets 
give more pleasure than this sweet singer. 
Canaries are at home in a cage, and the pleas- 
ure of listening to their song is not marred by 
the thought that they are pining for freedom. 

Most of the canaries sold in this country 
come from Germany or England. Much the 
larger number are bred in the Harz Mountains 
in Germany. The English canary has the ad- 
vantage of the German bird in size and bright 
color, but its song is louder and harsher, and 
the variety of its notes less than in the German 
bird. 

The St. Andreasberg canary, so-called be- 
cause it is bred in the village of St. Andreas- 
berg, in the Harz Mountains, is generally re- 
garded as the best singer. Great care is taken 
in mating birds of good voices only and in the 

training of the voices. 

(12) 177 



The New Century Home Book 

The musical education of the canary begins 
when he has finished his first molting, or 
when about twelve weeks old. With others of 
his age the bird is placed in a room out of hear- 
ing of all other singing canaries. In the ceil- 
ing of this room is a small opening, and in the 
room above is kept a fine European nightin- 
gale or skylark, or some other excellent 
whistling bird. From this unseen instructor 
the young canaries learn tlieir beautiful bell 
notes, trills, flute notes, water notes, and 
shakes. 

A bird which gives promise of an unusually 
fine voice may be placed in a separate room for 
special instruction. He can be taught to 
whistle a song. The trainer whistles the song 
over and over for an hour at a time, three times 
a day, until the bird has mastered the notes. 
During the training he must not be allowed to 
hear any other canary sing, or he will quickly 
forget the new song and take up his natural 
notes. 

Unpainted cages are best for canaries or any 

other house birds. A bird will be sure to peck 

178 



The New Century Home Book 

at every place that offers a hold for his bill, and 
it takes very little paint to poison him. 
Whether your bird's cage is of wood or metal, 
give special attention to keeping it clean. It 
is almost impossible to have a healthy bird in 
a dirty cage. Keep gravel paper or fine loose 
gravel on the floor of the cage. If the floor is 
metal, let the gravel lie on paper, so that the 
bird's feet may be kept from the metal. 
Perches should be frequently washed and care- 
fully dried before they are replaced in the cage. 
Be careful about hanging your canary in or 
too near a window. He is very sensitive to 
draughts and will catch cold from a draught 
so slight you cannot feel it. Sunshine is not 
only not necessary to a canary, but it is gener- 
ally injurious. The bird may be placed in the 
sun's rays for a few minutes — ten or fifteen — 
after he has taken his bath, but that is quite 
enough. If the cage is in a strong light, such 
as it gets in a window, the bird will spend too 
much of his time hopping about, and his song 
will lose its soft and most pleasing notes, his 

voice becoming shrill and loud. 

179 



The New Century Home Book 

To keep your canary in good voice and good 
health special care must be taken of his food. 
The most common mistake of bird owners is to 
give too much food and not the right kind. 
German rape seed and canary seed, in equal 
parts and well mixed, should be the staple food 
the year round. Be careful that the rape seed 
is not adulterated with mustard or turnip seed, 
and that the canary seed is not partly millet 
seed. It is safer to trade with a reliable dealer 
in buying food for the bird. 

Avoid giving your bird too much food. A 
good-sized teaspoonful of the mixed seed each 
day is enough, provided the food cup is so 
placed that the canary can reach all that is in 
it. If more seed than he can eat is furnished, 
the bird will pick out only the canary seed and 
leave the rape. If he is allowed to do this long, 
his voice and song will be spoiled. If your 
bird persists in eating only the canary seed, put 
in more rape and less canary seed. If neces- 
sary, give him rape seed only for a short time. 

Feed the canary a small piece of hard-boiled 

egg — yolk and white grated together — twice a 

180 



The New Century Home Book 

week. This may be given each day while the 
bird is molting. Do not feed the bird celery, 
lettuce, or other "greens.'' All he should have 
in that line is a very small piece of apple about 
twice a week. Sweet apple is better than sour 
for the bird's health. A cuttle bone should 
always be kept in the cage, and it should be re- 
placed with a fresh bone three times a year. 

Like the seed cup, the water cup should be 
cleaned every day and fresh water supplied for 
the bird. 

It is better for a canary to bathe three times 
a week than every day. The water should be 
tepid and not over three quarters of an inch 
deep. Canaries often take strange whims about 
bathing. A bird will refuse to get into the 
usual tub, but will quickly hop into a shallow 
saucer. Sometimes he does not like the shape 
of the dish, or he objects to its color. It is use- 
less to try to force your bird to bathe if he de- 
clines. Try him with different sizes, shapes, 
and colors of tubs, and different depths of 
water. If you fail to suit his taste, the bath 

must be omitted. 

181 



The New Century Home Book 

The canary's bedtime is at dusk. His cage 
should then be covered and placed in a dark 
room. Paper is the best covering, but in using 
cloth or paper see that it is so arranged around 
the bottom of the cage that there are no upward 
draughts. 

Do not hang your canary so near the ceiling 
that he must breathe the bad air which collects 
there. Take him out of the room when it is 
being swept. The dust which he must other- 
wise breathe is bad for his voice. Sixty-five 
degrees, or a little higher, is the best tempera- 
ture for canaries. 

Many of the canary's most dangerous dis- 
eases are due to colds. Hence the stress that 
has been laid upon the necessity for avoiding 
draughts. When a canary has caught cold his 
body puffs up and his breathing becomes 
labored, while his appetite is much more than 
normal. On the first appearance of these signs 
give the bird a paste made of one third of a 
hard-boiled egg — both yolk and white — grated 
together with a liberal pinch of red pepper and 

two or three drops of olive oil. Put two drops 

182 



The New Century Home Book 

of alcohol in the drinking water. A piece of 
fat salt pork, raw, should be hnng in the cage 
for the canary to eat. If the cold does not yield 
readily to this treatment, it is best to consult 
a bird dealer. Never neglect the cold. 

Treat asthma as you do the cold, but cut the 
salt pork into very fine pieces and sprinkle it 
with red pepper. Give the bird a little bread 
soaked in warm milk, and put only rape seed in 
the food cup. 

Loss of voice is usually the result of a cold, 
and is treated in the sam§ way as a cold. 
Sometimes it is due to oversinging. In that 
case let a very small piece of rock candy be dis- 
solved in the drinking water, feed the bird the 
egg, pepper, and oil paste, and cover the cage 
to keep him from trying to sing. 

Too much food, especially too much rich 
food, often causes epilepsy or fits. A sudden 
fright or hanging in the hot sun, sometimes 
has the same result. Let the bird have fresh 
air and sprinkle cold water on his head. If 
the fits are due to the heat, let the canary 
breathe smelling salts and sprinkle his head. 



183 



The New Century Home Book 

Close confinement in a small cage, or in a 
dirty cage of any size, will cause cramps. Put 
the canary in a larger or a clean cage. Hold 
his legs in warm water, and put two drops of 
laudanum in his drinking water. 

Dirty cages will cause sore feet. Soak the 
feet in warm water, wipe dry, and rub them 
gently with glycerine. 

When the nails on your canary's feet grow 
long and interfere with his walking they should 
be trimmed. By holding the bird up to the 
light the vein in each nail can be seen. Cut 
the nail with a sharp knife or scissors, taking 
great care not to cut as far back as the vein. 
The beak may also become overgrown and need 
to be trimmed. It is wiser to take the bird to a 
dealer for this operation. This caution applies 
also to broken legs. Do not try to set your 
bird's broken leg at home. 

No matter how clean you keep the canary's 
cage, it will occasionally become infested with 
little red insects which are almost too small to 
be seen with the naked eye. These insects irri- 
tate the bird, and, if left alone, will destroy his 

184 



The New Century Home Book 

health. If your bird persistently scratches and 
pecks at his feathers and body, especially after 
settling upon his perch for the night, look for 
the little red pests. Give the bird a thorough 
dusting with insect powder, rubbing it through 
his feathers with your fingers to make sure that 
it reaches every part of his body. If the cage 
is of metal, unscrew the hollow top, fill it with 
the powder, and replace it. If the cage is 
wooden, put the canary into another one and 
give the wooden cage a thorough washing with 
suds made from carbolic soap. Let it be well 
dried before it is again used. 

Another simple method of ridding the bird 
of insects is to substitute for the ordinary 
perch a hollow reed with two or three notches 
cut in the center on one side. The perch will 
be found filled with the insects in the morning, 
and they can be shaken out into a fire. Keep 
this up three or four days and all the insects 
will be caught. The perch should be occa- 
sionally dipped into boiling water to destroy 
any insects that were not shaken out. 

Still another effective remedy for these in- 

185 



The New Century Home Book 

sects is to put under each wing of the bird a 
mere trace — less than half a drop — of kerosene 
oil. This should be repeated in ten days. 

What has been said about the care of cana- 
ries and the treatment of their diseases will 
apply generally to other birds usually kept in 
the home whose principal food is seeds. Among 
these are the linnet, bulfinch, goldfinch, chaf- 
finch, and the paroquet. 

The mocking bird, which is a favorite in 
many homes, requires careful and constant at- 
tention. He should have a large cage, and it 
should be kept very clean and well supplied 
with gravel. Prepared food obtained from 
your bird dealer is better for the mocking bird 
than any food you can prepare at home. Flies, 
grasshoppers, spiders, and other insects should 
be gathered at the proper seasons and hung up 
in paper bags to dry. Feed these to the bird 
in winter, first softening them by pouring boil- 
ing water over them. Meal worms are also a 
delicacy for mocking birds, but they make rich 
food and should be given sparingly. Give your 

mocking bird a bath each day. 

186 



The New Century Home Book 

Parrots needs large cages or stands. The 
best food for a parrot is a mixture of equal 
parts of hemp, rice, cracked corn, and sun- 
flower seeds. He should have a small piece of 
cuttle bone each day. Fresh fruit may be given 
in limited quantities, but you can tell only by 
experience what kinds will be best for your 
bird. Never give your parrot meat or greasy 
food of any kind. He will often relish a 
cracker or piece of bread soaked in coffee. 

Let the parrot have plenty of sand daily for 

his dry bath. Water baths should be given to 

him only once or twice a week. Use from a pint 

to a quart of water in which has been dissolved 

about a teaspoonful of borax, and spray the 

bird thoroughly with an atomizer. 

187 



The New Century Home Book 



iBconomic Dalue of Birbe 

T^HE economic value of birds to man lies 
in the service they render in preventing 
the undue increase of insects, in devouring 
small rodents, in destroying the seed of harm- 
ful plants, and in acting as scavengers. 

Based upon reliable statistics, leading ento- 
mologists estimate that insects cause an annual 
loss of at least $200,000,000 to the agricultural 
interests of the United States every year, ex- 
clusive of the damage done to ornamental 
shrubbery, shade and forest trees. 

In the air swallows and swifts course ever in 

pursuit of insects which constitute their sole 

food. When they retire the nighthawks and 

whippoorwills take up the chase, catching 

moths and other nocturnal insects which would 

escape the day-flying birds. The woodpeckers, 

nuthatches, and creepers attend to the tree 

trunks and limbs, examining carefully each 

inch of bark for insects' eggs and larvae, or ex- 

188 



The New Century Home Book 

cavating for the ants and borers they hear at 
work within. On the ground the hunt is con- 
tinued by the thrushes, sparrows, and other, 
birds who feed upon the innumerable forms of 
terrestrial insects. 

The stomach of a yellow-billed cuckoo shot 
at six o'clock in the morning contained the par- 
tially digested remains of forty-three tent 
caterpillars. E. H. Forbush, ornithologist of 
the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, 
states that the stomachs of four chickadees con- 
tained 1,028 eggs of the cankerworm. The 
stomachs of four other birds of the same species 
contained about 600 eggs and 105 female 
moths of the cankerworm. The average num- 
ber of eggs found in twenty of these moths was 
185, and as it is estimated that a chickadee 
irij eat thirty female cankerworm moths a day 
during the twenty-five days when these moths 
crawl up trees, it follows that in this period 
each chickadee would destroy more than 138,- 
000 eggs of this noxious insect. 

Professor Forbes, Director of the Illinois 

State Laboratory of Natural History, found 

189 



The New Ccntary Home Book 

175 larvae of bibio — a fly which in the larval 
stage feeds on the roots of grass — in the 
stomach of a single robin, and the intestines 
contained probably as many more. 

Dr. A. K. Fisher, assistant ornithologist of 
the United States Department of Agriculture, 
has found that ninety per cent of the food of 
the red-shouldered hawk, commonly called 
"chicken hawk," or "hen hawk," consists of in- 
jurious mammals and insects, while 200 cast- 
ings of the barn owl contained the skulls of 450 
small mammals, no less than 225 of these being 
skulls of the destructive field or meadow mouse. 

Dr. G. F. Gaumer, of Yucatan, says the kill- 
ing of immense numbers of herons and other 
littoral birds in Yucatan has been followed by 
an increase of mortality among the inhabitants 
of the coast, a direct result of the destruction 
of birds that assisted in keeping beaches and 
bayous free from decaying animal matter. 

The feathers of each and all of these little- 
appreciated allies of the agriculturist are used 
on women's hats as well as those of more gor- 
geous plumage. 

190 



The New Century Home Book 



(Bolbfieb in tbe Ibome 

/^OLDFISH are by far the most satisfac- 
tory fish to keep in a home aquarium. 
They are hardy, will stand considerable hand- 
ling, require little food, and will live many 
years with proper care. They have been known 
to live fifty years. 

The aquarium for goldfish — or any other 
fish — should be square or oblong. The globes 
in which the fish are usually sold so distort the 
appearance of the fish that their true size and 
movements can be seen only from above. 

Cover the bottom of your aquarium with 

clean sand to the depth of about two inches, 

and over this put a thin layer of gravel. Two 

or three small aquatic plants, such as are found 

in any nearby creek or pond, should be placed 

on the gravel and weighted with pebbles so that 

they will retain their position until they have 

taken root. Then pour in clear fresh water 

very slowly and carefully, so that the sand and 

191 



The New Century Home Book 

gravel are not disturbed. Fill the tank to about 
two inches from the top. Drop into the water 
a few snails, such as are found in any pond. 
They are the best scavengers known for an 
aquarium, and are of great service in consum- 
ing decaying vegetation. This done, the aqua- 
rium is ready for the fish. 

Do not overfeed your goldfish. A bit of 
toasted bread, which has been kept a long time 
and is perfectly dry when dropped into the 
water, is the best food. It should be given 
about twice a week, and is better for the fish if 
made of baker's bread. 

In small aquariums, where the fish arc 
crowded or large, the water should be changed 
nearly every day. In large aquariums, kept in 
well-ventilated rooms, the water requires chang- 
ing less often. When bubbles collect around 
the sides of the aquarium it is a sure sign that 
the water needs to be changed. 

Take care not to frighten your goldfish. 

The aquarium should be kept in the quietest 

part of the room, and it should always have 

fresh air. Drop into the water once in a while 

192 



The New Century Home Book 

a small pinch of salt. It helps to sweeten and 
clarify the water. When the room is lighted 
in the evening cover the aquarium with a cloth. 
The goldfish needs darkness when it rests. 

The most common disease of the goldfish is 
a sort of dropsj;, which is always fatal. Its 
symptom is a small puff or swelling on the 
under side of the belly of a different color or 
shade from the surrounding skin. If you have 
other fish in the aquarium remove at once the 
fish showing the sign of dropsy. Otherwise 
you will lose all your fish. 

Another disease which attacks goldfish is a 

parasitic fungus or phlegm, due to the deposit 

of a micro-organism, which appears upon the 

fins and gills and soon spreads over the head 

and body and kills the fish. This disease is 

probably caused by impure water, but when it 

appears changing the water does not cure it. 

No remedies are known for these diseases in 

goldfish. 

(13) 193 



The New Century Home Book 



Canb? in tbe Ibome 

T^HE common notion that all candy is un- 
healthy is not strictly true. It depends 
upon the candy and the person who eats it. 
Pure candy is rarely unhealthy, except for 
those persons who should not eat sugar. It is 
unhealthy for every person who eats too much 
of it. Moderation is a golden rule in the use of 
candy. Impure or adulterated candy is a 
menace to the health of every person who uses 
it. The profit in adulterating confectionery is 
large, and there is a great deal of impure candy 
in the market. 

The chief ingredient of candy is sugar. 
Most candy is nine tenths or more sugar. As a 
producer of heat and an active maker of fat, 
sugar is an important element of food. If you 
are inclined to take on too much fat, you will 
be wise to let candy alone. If you are thin, 
good candy, eaten in moderation, will tend to 

increase your flesh. 

194 



The New Century Home Book 

Its quality of producing heat explains why 
candy is so agreeable to children. When the 
body is growing, as in the case of a child, a 
great deal of heat is needed. Sugar supplies 
this better than almost any other food. It is 
a stimulating food, also, and therefore valuable 
to persons who have to perform heavy labor, or 
who are weak and generally "run down^' in 
health. These very qualities of sugar call for 
moderation in eating candy. Too much stimu- 
lating food is as bad as not enough. 

Because candy is largely a food, it should 
not be eaten just before mealtime. It does not 
contain all the food elements needed by man, 
but will destroy the appetite for food at the 
table. 

Children are the most likely to indulge in 
overeating of candy, and they will suffer more 
than their elders from such indulgence. The 
sugar in the candy quickly ferments after eat- 
ing, and if too much has been eaten, serious 
stomach troubles will follow. A baby in arms 
should never have candy. It will cause acidity 

of the stomach, and the little one will suffer 

195 



The New Century Home Book 

great pain. To give candy to an infant is as 
far as possible from doing it a kindness. It 
would be less cruel to strike the baby a hard 
blow. The pain would be less severe and sooner 
over. 

Guard against impure candy. Cheap candy 
is not always the poorest, but it is well to keep 
a close watch upon the "penny candy" so allur- 
ing to most children. Glucose is a very com- 
mon adulterant of candy. It is usually made 
from corn and takes the place of the sugar 
which gives candy its principal value as food. 
Plaster of Paris and terra alba are often found 
in candy, and glue is used instead of gum 
arable in some of the common gumdrops. 
Cheap colored candy should always be regarded 
with suspicion until it has been proved pure. 
Harmful and poisonous drugs are often used 
in the coloring matter. 

The fact that pure sugar readily dissolves in 

water and leaves a clear liquid affords an easy 

means of testing the purity of candy. Put a 

small piece of candy in a glass and pour over 

it boiling water, filling the glass. Let it stand 

196 



The New Century Home Book 

twenty-four hours, and if any foreign sub- 
stance is in the candy, it will appear as a sedi- 
ment in the bottom of the glass. 

To determine the presence of starch in 
candy, boil a teaspoonful of the candy in a 
cupful of water until it reaches the consistency 
of a thin paste. Then let it cool and add one 
drop of iodine. If starch is present, the mix- 
ture will turn blue. 

You can always have pure candy by making 
it yourself. The children will tell you that 
homemade candy always tastes the best, and 
there are no better judges. It tastes all the 
better if they have been permitted to help in 
the making, or, indeed, to do all the work. 
Candy making at home is not at all difficult. 
Even some of the most fancy kinds, for which 
high prices are charged in the stores, are easily 
and cheaply made at home. Careful attention 
to small details is the prime factor in success- 
ful candy making. 

Oddly enough, the weather must be consid- 
ered in making candy. Do not undertake it on 

a damp, foggy, or rainy day. The more dry 

197 



The New Century Home Book 

and clear the weather the easier it will be to 
handle the sugar, which catches and retains the 
humidity in the atmosphere, making it too 
"sticky" to use with comfort or the greatest 
success on a damp day. For this reason the 
room should be free from the steam of boiling 
water. 

In boiling the sugar for making candy care 
must be taken to avoid crystallization or gran- 
ulation, to which the sugar is always inclined 
as the water evaporates. It is useless for candy 
making if it granulates. To escape granula- 
tion, the sugar, to which water is added in the 
proportion of half a cupful to a pound, must 
be constantly stirred while it is boiling until 
it is dissolved, but not a moment longer. Then 
cover the sugar for five or six minutes, so that 
the steam cannot escape. If crystals appear 
on the sides of the pan when the cover is re- 
moved, they must be carefully wiped away 
without touching the sugar. Greater heat is 
required for sugar than for molasses, and the 
heat should be as even as possible. The more 

rapidly sugar is boiled the better candy. 

198 



The New Century Home Book 

All cream candies and fancy bonbons are 
made with fondant for their foundation. If 
placed in air-tight jars, the fondant can be 
kept for any length of time. Here are some 
reliable recipes for making fondant : 

Moisten three cupfuls of granulated sugar 
with one and a half cupfuls of water in a sauce- 
pan. Let it stand without disturbance for half 
an hour. Then put it over the fire, add a large 
pinch of cream of tartar, and stir until the 
sugar is dissolved. Then place the pan where the 
contents will boil slowly, but not burn, and do 
not stir the mixture. If it seems to boil too fast, 
hold the pan up from the fire for a moment. 

When the syrup has boiled a few moments 
dip a small stick into the liquid, and then 
quickly plunge the stick into cold water. If 
the mixture adhering to the stick can then be 
rolled up like soft putty, the syrup has reached 
the right point and should be taken from the 
fire at once. 

Turn the mixture out of the pan upon a 

shallow dish, like a platter, or upon a marble 

slab, and knead it with the hands or stir with 

199 






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If the candy is to be pulled, pour out only a 
small quantity at a time. Dip the hands in 
flour, take the cooling candy with the tips of 
the fingers, and pull until the desired color is 
reached. Twist into sticks and cut into 
lengths, or lay on marble and cut into small 
pieces. If a large quantity is to be pulled, it 
may be thrown over a peg or hook that has 
been buttered or floured. 

2. To make this candy hard and brittle, sub- 
stitute a half teaspoonful of vinegar for the 
soda. Stir constantly when the candy is nearly 
done. 

3. Three cupfuls of molasses, one cupful of 
sugar, one tablespoonful of vinegar, and a 
piece of butter the size of an egg. Boil eighteen 
minutes, and add half a teaspoonful of soda 
and boil two minutes longer. Stir constantly. 

4. One pint of New Orleans molasses and 

half an ounce of butter. Boil until the mixture 

becomes brittle when dropped into cold water. 

Then add ten grains of soda and take from the 

fire to cool. Stir in black walnuts or hickory 

nuts, or the candy may be pulled. 

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5. One cupful of New Orleans molasses, a 
half cupful of light brown sugar, two table- 
spoonfuls of vinegar, and butter the size of an 
egg. Boil until the mixture hardens when 
dropped into cold water, and then drop in one 
fourth teaspoonful of soda. Pour on buttered 

plates to cool. 

Fudge. 

1. Mix three quarters of a cupful of unsweet- 
ened chocolate, grated or cut into small pieces, 
one cupful of milk, and two cupfuls of sugar. 
Boil, stirring constantly. When fairly boiling 
add a small piece of butter. After twenty 
minutes it will begin to thicken. Watch care- 
fully, and when the spoon leaves a trace on the 
bottom of the kettle take it off, add one tea- 
spoonful of vanilla quickly, and beat until the 
mixture is thick. Pour into buttered pans in 
layers about three quarters of an inch thick 
and cut into squares. The success of fudge 
depends upon its being removed from the fire 
at the right moment. 

2. Prepare as in IN'o. 1, and add chopped 
nuts when the vanilla is put in. Walnuts, 



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hickory nuts, peanuts, or an}^ preferred nuts 
may be used. Almonds are too hard to be 
desirable. 

3. Substitute maple sugar for the chocolate, 
and prepare as in No. 1. 

4. To two cupfuls of granulated sugar add 
two thirds of a cupful of milk. Heat slowly 
until the boiling point is reached, and then boil 
rapidly. When it begins to thicken add a piece 
of butter the size of a walnut. Boil a moment 
or two longer. Then take from the fire and 
add vanilla to suit the taste and one cupful of 
finely chopped nut meats. Stir until the mix- 
ture is smooth. Pour into buttered pans in 
la3^ers half an inch thick and cut into squares. 

5. Prepare as in No. 4 and use grated cocoa- 
nut instead of the nut meats. 

6. Use fruit instead of nuts, and prepare as 

in No. 4. 

Chocolate Caramels. 

1. Mix one cupful of molasses, two cupfuls 

of brown sugar, and one cupful of milk, and 

boil for half an hour. Then add a good-sized 

piece of butter and two tablespoonfuls of flour 

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The New Century Home Book 

which has been moistened with cold milk and 
rubbed smooth. \Yhen the mixture begins to 
thicken add one half pound of grated choco- 
late. Test by cooling a few drops on a cold 
plate, and when the desired consistency is 
reached pour into buttered pans and cut into 
squares. 

2. One cupful of best syrup, one cupful of 
brown sugar, one cupful of white sugar, two 
cupfuls of grated chocolate, two cupfuls of 
cream, one teaspoonful of flour mixed with 
the cream, and vanilla to suit. Eub the choco- 
late to a smooth paste with the cream, boil all 
together half an hour, and pour into flat dishes 
to cool. 

3. One cupful of milk, two cupfuls of sugar, 
one cupful of molasses, half a cupful of grated 
chocolate, and vanilla to suit. Boil for one 
and a quarter hours and cool in buttered tins. 

4. One cupful of water, one cupful of sugar, 

half a cupful of grated chocolate, butter the 

size of a walnut. Boil the water, sugar, and 

butter to a syrup, and when nearly done add 

the chocolate. Stir the whole mixture con- 

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The New Century Home Book. 

stantly to prevent lumping. Spread on greased 

paper and cut into squares. 

5. One cupful of milk, two cupfuls of sugar, 

two cupfuls of molasses, and one cupful of 

chocolate. Boil all together until the syrup 

candies. Pour on greased tins and mark into 

squares. 

Peanut Thin. 

Put two cupfuls of sugar and a dessert- 
spoonful of butter into a shallow saucepan and 
stir constantly until dissolved. Then remove 
from the fire and stir in a pinch of soda and 
one cupful of shelled and skinned peanuts, 
rolled rather fine, and pour on buttered pans in 
very thin sheets. Great care must be taken to 
prevent burning of the sugar. As soon as it 
dissolves it will begin to burn unless removed. 
Other nuts may be used in this recipe as 

preferred. 

Popcorn Balls. 

Prepare mixture as in recipe No. 1 for 

molasses candy, but do not cook quite so hard. 

Pour a small quantity into a buttered pan, 

sprinkle thickly with freshly popped corn. 

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The New Century Home Book 

Dip the finger tips into flour, and with them 
form the popcorn into balls. There should be 
just enough candy to hold the corn together. 

Popcorn Cakes. 

Proceed as for popcorn balls, but pour 
crushed popcorn into the hot mixture until it 
cannot be stirred any more. Place the mixture 
on a buttered board or marble slab, press with 
a rolling pin until about half an inch thick, 
and cut into squares with a large knife. 

Sugared Popcorn. 

Boil together one cupful of sugar, one table- 
spoonful of butter, and three tablespoonfuls of 
water until candied. Pour in popcorn and stir 
briskly until the corn is well coated. Flavor 
with vanilla if desired. 

Honey Popcorn. 

Boil in a frying pan one pint of honey until 
it is very thick. Then stir into it freshly 
popped corn, and when it is cool mold it into 

balls. 

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Cream Walnuts. 
Crack English walnuts carefully so as to pro- 
serve the halves in perfect shape. With fingers 
slightly moistened with water or butter form 
imcooked fondant into small balls and press 
two pieces of the nut together on either side 
of the balls, flattening them to the desired 
shape. Lay on waxed or buttered paper. 

Cream Dates. 
Remove the pits from dates and fill the cavi- 
ties with uncooked fondant. 

Stuffed Dates. 
Shell and skin peanuts, remove the pits from 
dates, and in each date insert two whole nuts. 
Press together and roll in granulated sugar. 

Chocolate Cream Drops. 

Mold fondant into small balls. Scrape half 

a cake of chocolate into a bowl and set it in 

the top of a steaming teakettle — not boiling — 

until dissolved. Drop the fondant balls into 

the chocolate, one at a time, roll them over 

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quickly, take out with a fork, and place them 
on a buttered platter. Do not let the chocolate 
cook, or it will harden. 

Cream Candy. 

Boil two large cupfuls of granulated sugar 
and six tablespoonfuls of water until the syrup 
will harden when dropped into cold water. 
Add two teaspoonfuls of vanilla and a small 
teaspoonful of cream of tartar. Turn into a 
buttered dish until cool enough to handle, pull 
until the mixture is white, cut into short 
lengths, and set away to get cold. When the 
sticks have become cold and hard they may be 
placed in a glass jar and set away for a week 
or ten days. 

CocoANUT Candy. 
Put the milk of one cocoanut into two 
pounds of sugar and set it on the fire. When 
it begins to boil add the grated meat of the 
cocoanut, and cook until the nut meat is ten- 
der. Pour into buttered pans to cool and cut 
into squares before it hardens. 
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Butter Scotch. 
Boil one cupful of sugar, one cupful of but- 
ter, and one cupful of molasses until it hardens 
when dropped into cold water. Spread thinly 
in pans and mark it in little squares. 

Taffy. 

Put a little butter in the bottom of a sauce- 
pan and put over it one pound of sugar and two 
tablespoonfuls of vinegar. Let it stand all 
night. If it looks too dry in the morning, add 
a little vinegar. Boil the mixture without stir- 
ring it until it hardens when dropped into 
water. Drop in a teaspoonful of vanilla and 
pour thinly into buttered tins to get cold. 

Turkish Delight. 

Break into pieces an ounce of sheet gelatine 

and soak it in half a cupful of cold water for 

two hours. Put one pound of granulated sugar 

and half a cupful of cold water into a pan and 

let it dissolve over a fire. When it reaches the 

boiling point add the soaked gelatine and boil 

steadily for twenty minutes. Put in the rind 

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and juice of one orange and the juice of a 
lemon. Wet a tin with cold water and turn 
into it the mixture about an inch thick and 
stand it away to harden. When it jellies cut 
into squares and roll in confectioner's sugar. 

White Candy. 

Mix one pound of sugar, two thirds of a 
tumbler of water, one teaspoonful of vinegar, 
butter the size of a walnut, and half a teaspoon- 
ful of cream of tartar. Boil twenty minutes 
without stirring. Pour into buttered plates to 
cool. Butter your hands and pull the candy, 
occasionally wetting the fingers with a little 
vanilla or lemon. 

Fig Candy. 

Boil one cupful of sugar and one third of a 

cupful of water until it is a pale brown color. 

Then stir in a quarter teaspoonful of cream 

of tartar and take off the fire. Wash and cut 

open figs, spread them on a platter, and pour 

the mixture over them. Set in a cool place 

until the covering has hardened, 

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Fruit Glace. 

Mix one cupful of granulated sugar, one cup- 
ful of water, and the juice of one lemon, and 
boil half an hour in a porcelain-lined kettle 
without stirring. When the syrup hardens if 
dropped into water pour it into a small dish 
and set it in a pan of boiling water to keep the 
syrup liquid. Dip into it cherries, grapes, 
bunches of currants, slices of citron, peaches, 
plums, oranges divided into their natural sec- 
tions, sliced pineapples, or any other fruit. 
Place the fruit on a buttered paper to let the 
glace cool and harden. 

The whole meats of nuts may be substituted 
for fruit in this recipe, making a very rich nut 



glace. 



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flee Cream in tbe flDome 

T^O make good ice cream at home is not at all 
so difficult as many persons think. As 
in candy making, the essential thing is careful 
attention to details. Carelessness in freezing 
is responsible for most of the failures in home 
ice cream making. 

In packing the freezer for use remember 
that the smaller the ice is broken the better it 
will do its work, while the salt should not be 
too fine. The best salt is that prepared espe- 
cially for the purpose, and generally known in 
the market as "ice cream'^ salt. When the 
cream has been poured into the can, and the 
can set into the tub, place the ice and salt 
around it in alternate layers. Begin with a 
layer of ice about three inches deep. Then put 
in a layer of about an inch of salt, and so on to 
the top. It is well to break the ice by pound- 
ing it in a bag. The freezing should not be 

done too hastily, especially at first. Lumpy 

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The New Century Home Book 

cream will be avoided by turning the freezer 
slowly at first, increasing the speed as the freez- 
ing progresses. 

Every utensil used in making ice cream 
should be kept perfectly clean. Use special 
care in seeing that the ice cream can is very 
thoroughly cleansed. No matter how carefully 
it was cleaned when last used, scald it inside 
and out before using it again. Do not eat 
cream that has stood in the can overnight. 
There is always danger of poison in such cream. 

Vanilla Ice Cream. 

Use one pint of milk, two cupfuls of sugar, 
one large tablespoonful of flour rubbed smooth 
in cold milk, two eggs beaten light, one table- 
spoonful of extract of vanilla, and one quart 
of cream well beaten. Heat the milk in a 
double kettle. When it is smoking hot add the 
flour, eggs, and one cupful of the sugar. Cook 
twenty minutes or a little less, stirring often. 
When cold add the remaining sugar, vanilla, 
and cream, and freeze. A mixture of vanilla, 

lemon, and almond extracts makes a pleasant 

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flavoring. This recipe makes about two quarts 

of cream. 

Caramel Ice Cream. 

Proceed as for vanilla cream, but use only a 
small teaspoonful of vanilla. When the hot 
mixture is ready place it where it will remain 
hot. Put the second cupful of sugar in a shal- 
low saucepan and stir constantly until it is 
melted. Turn this "caramel" into the hot mix- 
ture, stir or beat until perfectly mixed or dis- 
solved, and strain. When cold add the whipped 
cream, and freeze. 

Peach or Banana Ice Cream. 

Make the hot mixture as for vanilla cream, 
adding with the whipped cream about a pint of 
peeled and mashed peaches or bananas. 

Lemon Ice Cream. 

Mix the juice and rind of two lemons, the 

juice of one orange, and three quarters of a 

pound of sugar, and stand in a cool place about 

two hours. Scald a quart of cream and let it 

cool. Freeze the cream until it is quite thick, 

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The New Century Home Book 

and then stir in the sugar and lemon mixture 
and freeze the whole. 

Coffee Ice Cream. 

Use three pints of cream, one cupful of 
strong, clear coffee, two cupfuls of sugar, and 
two tablespoonfuls of arrowroot wet in cold 
milk. Heat half of the cream until it boils. 
Stir in the sugar, and when this is dissolved 
stir in the coffee and then the arrowroot. Boil 
all together for about five minutes. When 
cold beat the mixture up very light, whipping 
in the rest of the cream by degrees. Freeze. 

A cheaper coffee cream is made by sweeten- 
ing one quart of strong coffee with a quarter 
pound of sugar, stirring in two quarts of rich 
custard, and freezing. 

Creamless Ice Cream. 
Mix together and freeze one can of con- 
densed milk, twice the quantity of fresh milk, 
two eggs well beaten, one teaspoonful of vanilla, 
and half a teaspoonful of gelatine dissolved in 
cold water. If desired less sweet, increase the 

quantity of fresh milk. 

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The New Century Home Book 

Cream Ice. 
Use four lemons, eight peaches — or four 
bananas — four cupfuls of milk, and four cup- 
fuls of sugar. Grate the rinds of the lemons 
and use all of the juice and pulp, discarding 
only the seeds and tough skin. Peel and mash 
the peaches and mix in the sugar. Prepare the 
freezer, and when all is ready stir in the milk 
rapidly and begin freezing as soon as possible. 
If desired less rich, water may be substituted 
for part of the milk. 

Lemon Sherbet. 

Take two cupfuls of sugar, five cupfuls of 

cold water, the grated rind of one orange, and 

the juice of two oranges and two or three 

lemons. Boil the sugar and water just five 

minutes. When cold add the other ingredients, 

and strain and freeze. Sherbet prepared in 

this way should be served in small glasses. If 

additional stiffness is desired, beat the white of 

one egg stiff, add one spoonful of powdered 

sugar, and stir into the mixture as soon as it is 

frozen through. 

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The New Century Home Book 

Lemon and Other Ices. 
Proceed as for lemon sherbet, but after freez- 
ing pack it away and allow it to stand until 
very hard. Any fruit may be used to vary the 
flavor of sherbet or ice, but lemon should al- 
ways be the foundation. Strawberries, rasp- 
berries, blackberries, and peaches make good 
sherbet and ices. Mash the fruit and add 
either before or after straining. 

Mousse. 
Whip one quart of cream very light. Add 
one cupful of powdered sugar and flavor to 
taste with extract, or raspberry shrub, or any 
fruit syrup. Freeze without stirring. 

Maple Mousse. 

Use four eggs, one cupful of maple syrup, 

and one pint of cream. Beat the yolks of the 

eggs light and whip them into the syrup. Place 

in a double kettle, and when smoking hot allow 

it to remain over the fire ten minutes longer. 

Then take off and beat until frothy. When 

cool add the beaten whites of the eggs and the 

cream, well whipped. Freeze. 

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The New Century Home Book 



Cooling Drinks in tbe Ibome 

All ANY pleasant drinks for hot weather days 
are easily made at home, and can be 
drank with entire safety if used in moderation. 
Drinks prepared with fruit juices are healthful 
and nutritious, but care should be taken to use 
only pure juices. If you put up these juices at 
home, you run no risk of buying adulterated 
stuff in the stores. 

Lime juice or grape fruit juice should be kept 
on hand in the summer, and children and 
grown folk should frequently take a little of 
the juice in slightly sweetened water. 

To can fruit juices, mash the fruit and rub 

it through a sieve. To every pint of the juice 

and pulp add three cupfuls of sugar. Fill fruit 

jars with the mixture, cover them, and place 

them in a kettle with enough cold water to 

about cover them. Bring to a boil slowly and 

boil half an hour. Then fill the cans full, seal 

them, and cool them in water. 

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The New Century Home Book 

Egg Lemonade. 
Dissolve in one pint of water half a pound 
of granulated sugar and add the juice of four 
lemons and a cupful of cracked ice. Have 
ready the yolks and white of four eggs, beaten 
separately, the white until stiff and dry. Stir 
in the yolks with the lemonade and then the 
white. Add more sugar if desirable and serve 
in small glasses. 

Pineapple Lemonade. 
Boil one pound of granulated sugar in a 
pint of water until it is a thick syrup. Remove 
the scum as it rises. Squeeze the juice of three 
large lemons into a bowl and peel a pineapple, 
cutting out all the eyes. Grate the pineapple 
into the lemon juice, pour the syrup into the 
bowl, and stir it briskly two or three minutes. 
Add a quart of water and strain into a pitcher. 

Raspberry Drink. 

Put into a preserving kettle a pint of red 

raspberries and a quart of currants and mash 

them thoroughly. Set the kettle over a moder- 

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The New Century Home Book 

ate fire and let it heat gradually. After the 
mixture begins to boil pour it into a jelly bag 
and let it drain into a large bowl. When it is 
clear and cold ice it, sweeten to suit, and serve 
in small glasses. 

Orangeade. 
Beat one egg light and put it into a tumbler. 
Fill the glass nearly full of cold water, add the 
juice of one orange, sweeten, and shake well. 

Portable Lemonade. 
Mix one ounce of powdered tartaric acid, six 
ounces of powdered sugar, and one dram of 
essence of lemon. Place it in the sun to thor- 
oughly dry. Then rub together and divide into 
twenty-four portions, putting up each in a 
separate paper. One portion will make a glass 
of lemonade by simply dropping it into the 

water. 

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The New Century Home Book 



Ipaetimee in tbe Ibome 

QOME of us who are not yet ready to be 
called very old can remember when many 
good people looked askance at the introduction 
of games into the home life. It was thought 
to be an unprofitable, if not a downright sinful, 
misuse of time which might be devoted to bet- 
ter things than mere amusement. 

Happily for old and young alike, this view of 
life in the home has passed away. In the 
best and happiest homes games and pastimes 
have their place. There can be no doubt that 
men and women are helped to happier and 
better lives by home amusements. The chil- 
dren who are permitted and encouraged to en- 
joy healthful and innocent games at home cling 
closer to their homes. They are not tempted 
to go elsewhere for the amusement for which 
!N"ature has given them the desire. 

The danger in driving children away from 

home for amusement is particularly great in 

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The New Century Home Book 

the case of boys. For boys whose home life re- 
presses every buoyant feeling and desire for 
fun and romping the forces of evil are ever 
lying in wait. There are pitfalls and traps 
enough for your sons at the best. Do not help 
to put them in the way of these perils by re- 
fusing them amusements at home. ^ 

Parents, too, are better for joining in their 
children's games and pastimes. It lightens 
their cares; it helps to keep their brains clear 
for the larger duties of life; it aids in warding 
off physical and mental ills; it tends to keep 
them young in their old age. Above all, par- 
ticipation in your children's sports keeps you 
in that close and intimate touch with their 
lives, their thoughts, and their aspirations in 
which the truest family relations are found, 
and to attain which far too many parents fail. 
You do not want your children to grow away 
from you. Do what you can to prevent this by 
giving them amusements at home and sharing 
the pleasure with them. 

Keep the home pastimes within proper 

bounds. Because these amusements are desir- 

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The New Century Home Book 

able and good, they must not be permitted to 
fill up an undue share of the home life. Every 
member of the family, young or old, has his 
duties for himself and for others to perform, 
and with these the games must not be allowed 
to interfere. Studies must not be neglected for 
sports. Not until the day's lessons are learned 
and the day's duties done should the games ap- 
pear. If this rule is followed, the home amuse- 
ments will be all the more enjoyable and will 
play their true part in the home life. If you 
find your children's studies and duties leave 
them no time for amusements, it is a serious 
question whether they are not doing more than 
is good for their mental and physical health. 

Other things being equal, outdoor games are 
preferable to indoor sports for their wider ex- 
ercise in fresher air, but these are often out of 
the question, and, of course, are not to be 
lliought of in the long evenings of winter. It 
is well not to entirely forget exercise in making 
up a program for an evening's games, but it 
need not be of the violent or too noisy kind. 

The familiar games of blind man's buff, bean 

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The New Century Home Book 

bags, battledoor and shuttlecock, parlor ring 
toss, grace hoops, and parlor tenpins are ex- 
cellent for children and grown folk who have 
had little exercise. They give mind and body 
mild but stimulating and healthful activity, 
and are helpful after a rainy day which has 
kept everybody indoors. 

There are many pleasant home games in 
which parents and children may join, and 
which cannot be obtained at the toy stores. 
Some of them are given herewith : 

Jenkins Up. 

Divide the players into equal sides and seat 

them on opposite sides of a large table — the 

dining table is generally the best. One side 

takes a silver quarter or other coin, and all 

the players on that side hold their hands out 

of sight under the table. While the leader of 

the other side slowly counts ten the first side 

players pass the coin quickly back and forth 

from hand to hand under the table, until at the 

end of the count the signal, "Jenkins says 

hands up!" is given. Then all hands on the 
(15) 225 



The New Century Home Book 

first side must be raised with fingers tightly 
closed and the elbows resting on the table. Of 
course, one of the pla3^ers will have the coin in 
his hand, but he must not betray that fact. 

At the signal from the opposite side, "Hands 
down !" all drop their hands to the table, open- 
ing the fingers so that the hands rest flatly on 
their palms. The second side must now find 
the hand under which the coin is concealed. 
They agree upon a hand they believe does not 
conceal the coin, and order it lifted from the 
table. This is kept up, one hand at a time, 
until the coin is revealed, the object of the sec- 
ond side being to have the hand covering the 
coin the last one left upon the table. When the 
coin is revealed it is passed to the other side, 
which conceals it as the first one had done, and 
so on. The hands on the table when the coin 
is found count one each against the side which 
is hunting for it. The side loses which first has 
fifty hands scored against it. Each player 
keeps special watch on the player opposite, so 
as to catch any sign he may betray of having 
the coin. 

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The New Century Home Book 

"It." 

One of the players is sent out of the room, 
and the others place their chairs in a circle and 
agree that "It" shall be his or her left-hand 
neighbor. The outside player is then called in, 
and it his duty to gness what "It" is. Step- 
ping into the circle, he asks one of the players 
some questions about "It" which can and must 
be answered either "yes" or "no," and the 
player questioned must have his left-hand 
neighbor in mind when he answers. Questions 
are asked in turn of each player, going to the 
left around the circle. The questions and cate- 
gorical answers are sure to make a lot of fun 
from the start, and are to be kept up until the 
one in the center guesses what "It" is. 

Characteristics. 
Write on slips of paper— one for each player 
—seven or eight questions, the answers to 
which, if truthfully given, would tend to bring 
out the player's characteristics. For example : 
"What is your favorite book?" "What is your 
idea of happiness?" "What do you think of 

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The New Century Home Book 

matrimony?'^ Each player writes an answer 
to each of the questions. The answers are then 
read out without giving the writer's name. 
The one who rightly guesses from the answers 
who wrote the larger number wins the game. 

Eyes and Nose. 

Hang up in a doorway a sheet or large piece 
of paper and cut in it two holes for the eyes and 
one hole for the nose. Let one half the players 
be in front of the sheet and the others behind 
it. Each of the latter players steps up and 
looks through the eyeholes, letting his nose 
appear through the hole cut for it. Those in 
front of the sheet are to guess who it is whose 
eyes and nose they see, being allowed one 
minute for observation. Then the players 
change sides, and those who first posed become 
the guessers. The side making the larger num- 
ber of correct guesses is the winner. 

A variation of the Eyes and Nose game is to 

place a lamp so that it casts shadows of the 

players' profiles or hands or entire heads, those 

in front to guess whom the shadows represent. 

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The New Century Home Book 

Mixed Flowers. 
Select the names of ten well-known flowers 
and mix up the letters in each name, as, 
"negumiar" for geranium; "sanpy" for pansy, 
etc. Write these mixed names on slips of 
paper, one for each player, and allow so many 
minutes to sort out and write the correct names 
of the flowers. The winner is the one having 
the longest correct list at the end of the contest. 

Candle Hide and Seek. 
Send a player out of the room and wrap a 
piece of white paper around a white candle. 
Set the lighted candle on table or shelf, turn 
out or very low all other lights, call in the out- 
sider, and ask him to find the paper you have 
concealed, which you can truthfully tell him 
is "in plain sight." 

Gymkhana Race. 

This jolly game requires a blown egg for 

each player, with a coffee spoon for each; a 

piece of board with nails driven through it and 

their sharp ends sticking up; a needle and 

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The New Century Home Book 

thread for each person, and for each an apple 
swinging from the end of a long string. Place 
the blown eggs on a smooth table top or the 
polished floor; put the board and nails in an- 
other part of the room, or in another room, 
and hang the apples by their strings to a shelf, 
mantelpiece, or any other object so that they 
shall swing freely. At a given signal each 
player picks up an egg with his coffee spoon, 
not touching it with his hands, carries it to the 
board, and sticks it upright on a nail point. 
Then each threads a needle and puts it back 
into the workbasket. Next each player must 
take a bite from a swinging apple without 
touching it with his hands. The player who 
first accomplishes all these things is the winner. 

Memory. 

Place on a table in a room from which the 

players are excluded a collection of all sorts of 

things, small and large, and having no relation 

to each other. Call in the players, one at a 

time, and allow each one minute to look at the 

things on the table, without touching them. 

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The New Century Home Book 

After all have seen the table distribute paper 
and pencils and allow five or ten minutes for 
the plaj^ers to write down what they saw on the 
table. The one writing the longest correct list 
wins the game. 

Five Senses. 

This is an enlargement of the game of 
Memory. Arrange one table as for Memory, 
and cover it with a cloth. On another table 
place various articles under a sheet, and on a 
third table tiny portions of articles to be eaten 
or drank. On still another table put various 
articles having more or less characteristic 
odors, such as vinegar, coffee, cologne, etc. 

These tables represent the senses of sight, 
touch, taste, and smell. The cloth is lifted 
from the first, and the players are allowed two 
minutes to look at the articles, as in the 
Memory game. On the second table the players 
have two minutes in which to feel of the ob- 
ject under the covering. At the third table a 
taste of each article is taken, and at the fourth 

table one good '^sniff'^ of each article. Then a 

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The New Century Home Book 

person behind a suspended sheet strikes twice 
on each of various musical instruments, dishes, 
glasses, and other articles which have distinc- 
tive tones. After this the players are given 
slips of paper and pencils and allowed ten or 
fifteen minutes to write out what they saw, 
felt, tasted, smelled, and heard. The longest 
correct list, counting all senses, wins the game. 

Egg Football. 

Divide the players into equal sides and seat 
them around a smooth-top table with the mem- 
bers of the two sides alternating, so that each 
player sits between two of the opposite side. 
Erect miniature goal posts at each end of the 
table, and in the center place a blown egg. At a 
signal the players start to blowing the egg, each 
side striving to blow it through its opponents' 
goal. Of course, the egg must not be touched 
with the hands. Let the game be played in two 
"halves," as real football, and at the end of the 
contest the side scoring the larger number of 
goals is the winner. After each goal is won the 

egg is placed back in the center of the table. 

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The New Century Home Book 

If the egg is blown off the table, it must be re- 
placed one inch from the point where it left the 
table. 

Candle Duel. 
Blindfold two players, but have the hand- 
kerchiefs thin enough so that the wearers can 
see the glimmer of a lighted candle. Let each 
be given a lighted candle, which must be car- 
ried in his left hand, while his right hand must 
be held behind his back. Turn the lights low 
and let the contestants try to blow out each 
other's candle. The first one succeeding is the 
winner. Only the larger children or adults 
should try this game, for it is too much like 
"playing with fire" for the little ones. 

Hunt the Penny. 

With a sharp knife "nick" a copper cent so 

that a tiny point will stick up from its face. 

Press this against the dark wood of any article 

of furniture, mantelpiece, or the like, in plain 

sight, and then call in the player to find it. 

Like the white paper around the candle, it is 

not so easy to find as one might think. 

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Geography. 
Two persons must be in the secret to play 
this game. One of them is sent out of the 
room, and the others choose the name of some 
city or State, river or mountain. The outsider 
is then called in, and the second player who un- 
derstands the game asks him questions as to 
what name has been chosen. Suppose it is 
Chicago. "Is it New York?" the player will 
ask, and the answer will be "No," very prompt- 
ly. "Is it Buffalo?" "No" will be the answer. 
"Is it Chicago?" and to the astonishment of 
the others the answer will be "Yes" at once. 
The explanation is that just before asking the 
question which will give the right name the 
questioner mentions an animal. In this case 
"Buffalo" gave the outsider notice that the 
next name mentioned would be the one chosen. 

Hat Toss. 

Cut thin cardboard into slips about four 

inches long and three inches wide. Mark six 

slips "A," six "B," and so on, giving each player 

six cards of the same letter. Place a hat on its 

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The New Ccntuty Home Book 

crown in the middle of the floor and let the 
players draw their chairs into a circle aronnd 
it and as far from it as about five feet if the 
room will allow. Then each in turn tries to 
toss one of the slips of cardboard into the hat. 
Each slip that goes into the hat counts ten, and 
each one that rests on the brim counts five. 
The game may be to see which player will first 
count a hundred, or which will have the largest 
count at the end of five or ten rounds. The 
slips are lettered so that each player can tell 
which are his in the hat. 

Pictures and Poems. 

Let each player draw on a sheet of paper a 
picture of any object or thing he chooses, but 
without saying or writing what it is. Then let 
each player pass his drawing to his left-hand 
neighbor, who must then write a "poem" at 
least four lines long to describe or "fit in" with 
the picture which has been passed to him. It 
is hard to tell which are the funnier — the pic- 
tures or "poems" — in this game, and to guess 

what the pictures are is not always easy. 

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Princess Feather. 
Let the players be seated in a square, each 
holding with both hands to the corners or edges 
of a sheet spread out in the square. A small, 
very light feather is then tossed into the air 
over the sheet, and each player must, by blow- 
ing it, prevent it from touching him or falling 
to the sheet near his hands. If the feather 
touches a player, he must rise and stand behind 
his right-hand neighbor until some other player 
suffers the same penalty, when he takes that 
player's place. If he is touched a second time 
by the feather, he must go into "dungeon" by 
leaving the game. The same penalties are paid 
by the player nearest to whose hands the 
feather touches the sheet when it is allowed to 
fall. As the players fall out and the number 
around the sheet lessens it becomes harder and 
harder to keep the feather in the air, and the 
contest between the last two players left is al- 
ways exciting. Of course, no player is allowed 
to let go of the sheet or touch the feather in 
any way. It must be kept in the air by the 

breath alone. 

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The New Century Home Book 

Another way to play Prince's Feather is for 
the players to divide into equal numbers and 
stand up in lines facing each other about three 
feet apart, each player having a palm leaf fan. 
The feather is fanned back and forth. No 
player can turn around. Whenever the feather 
is fanned over the heads so that it goes behind 
a line, the leader of the opposite side chooses a 
player from the losing side, who must then 
work as valiantly as ever for the side to which 
he then belongs. At the end of a set time the 
game is stopped, and the side then having the 
larger number of players is the winner. 

Half the fun of this game is lost unless the 

feather used is very light and downy. The 

leader of the winning side is entitled to wear 

the feather as a trophy. New leaders should be 

chosen each time the game is played. 

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mineaa in tbe Ibome 

\1 7HEN in doubt as to whether the services 
of a physician are needed it is better to 
err on the safe side. It is both foolish and ex- 
pensive to run for the doctor whenever any 
little ailment appears, but it is poor economy 
to neglect seeking your physician's help until 
you have become seriously ill. If simple home 
treatment does not soon result in improvement, 
the doctor should be called. 

A medicine cabinet or chest should be kept 
in every home. In it should be kept the com- 
mon remedies for common troubles, and such 
appliances as would be needed in the case of an 
accident or a sudden illness. Each bottle or 
package should be marked with its contents 
and for what the medicine is designed. 

Besides the usual standard medicines for the 
more common diseases, you should keep in the 
cabinet ammonia, witch-hazel, sweet oil, vase- 
line, ipecac, salt, mustard, limewater, absorb- 

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The New Century Home Book 

ent cotton, court or surgeon's plaster, a couple 
of thin strips of wood for splints, and two or 
three bandages ready for use when an accident 
happens. 

' The medicine case should be kept in a con- 
venient place, but never where children can get 
into it. If poisons or medicines containing 
poisons are kept, they should be in bottles of 
different shape from the others, and always in 
the same place in the cabinet. The best plan 
is to have a separate case for poisons, small 
enough to set inside the larger case. The 
poison case should be locked, but the key should 
be kept beside it. With such simple precau- 
tions as these the risk of taking poison by mis- 
take for some harmless medicine is reduced to 
a minimum. Never, unless it is absolutely 
necessary, take anything from the medicine 
chest in the dark. See as well as feel what you 
are removing. 

The Sick Eoom. 

When illness enters your family put the 

patient in the most cheerful room in the house. 

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The room should be well lighted and open to 
the sunlight, and, if possible, it should have a 
southern exposure. It should be out of reach 
of kitchen odors. 

What has already been said of necessity for 
fresh air in the home applies with still greater 
force to the sick room. The ventilation of the 
room is of the very highest importance. Re- 
covery of the patient is sure to be greatly re- 
tarded, and, indeed, is often impossible, without 
a constant supply of fresh air driving out the 
impure air of the sick room. There must be 
an outlet for the foul air as well as an inlet for 
the fresh air. If there is a fireplace in the 
room, it will provide tlie very best outlet for 
vitiated air. A fire in the grate in cold 
weather, or a lighted lamp set in the fireplace 
in warm weather, will cause an upward current 
through the chimney to carry off bad air. 

In letting in fresh air care must be taken not 
to expose the patient to draughts. The win- 
dows should be kept lowered a little from the 
top and raised a trifle from the bottom. If it 

is found that the raised window causes a 

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X 



> 



2 

0) 

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The New Century Home Book 

draught, as is apt to be the case, place under 
the lower sash a piece of board the width of the 
window and about three inches wide. This 
will let the air in at the middle of the window 
and at the same time give it an upward current, 
so as to avoid a draught. If you use any kind 
of patent ventilators, see that they are arranged 
to send the air toward the ceiling. 

Sometimes when the patient is very sensitive 
to changed conditions the air of the room may 
be changed by opening the windows of an ad- 
joining room until that room has been filled 
with fresh air, and then closing the windows 
and opening the door to the sick room and 
swinging it rapidly on its hinges, so as to drive 
into the room the air from the connecting room. 

If you are troubled with the notion that 
night air is dangerous and unhealthy, get rid 
of the erroneous idea. The patient needs good 
air at night quite as much as in the daytime. 
Indeed, if a light is kept burning in the sick 
room, there is even more need of good ventila- 
tion at night than at other hours, for the light 

will use up a share of the good air. 
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If the sick room contains running water and 
a stationary wash basin, it is better not to make 
nse of them. The waste and overflow pipes of 
the basin should be tightly plugged with rub- 
ber corks. These pipes communicate with the 
sewers, and there is always some danger of the 
entrance of contaminated air through them. 
The portable wash basins and pitchers used in 
the sick room should be kept scrupulously clean. 

The proper temperature of the sick room will 
depend much upon the nature of the patient's 
disease, and should be regulated as the doctor 
directs. A reliable thermometer should always 
hang in the room. In the absence of specific 
directions from the physician, the temperature 
should be kept at from sixty-eight to seventy 
degrees. 

The furniture of the sick room should be 

plain and limited to the wants of the patient 

and nurse. No upholstered furniture should 

be permitted in the room. Lace curtains are 

out of place there. The curtains should be of 

muslin or material that can be easily washed. 

Let the patient's bed be so placed that the 

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The New Century Home Book 

nurse can attend the patient from either side. 
This, too, will give him a better chance to get 
fresh air than when the bed is in a corner or 
against a side wall. If the bed is of good 
width, the patient will enjoy being moved from 
side to side occasionally. Two narrow beds 
placed side by side will serve the same purpose. 
The bedstead should be of iron or brass rather 
than wood. It should have a wire mattress, 
and in ordinary illness there should be a hair 
mattress over the wire springs. 

In cases of severe illness, when the patient 
must be disturbed as little as possible, the bed 
should have a "draw sheet." Fold a sheet 
lengthwise so as to make it half its original 
width. Lay it across the bed so that one end 
is even with the side of the bed, and tuck in on 
the other side all the extra length. Then by 
gently drawing the sheet under the patient he 
can have a fresh part to lie upon with prac- 
tically no disturbance. 

Many persons find it difficult to change the 
sheets without disturbing the patient or ex- 
posing him to the cold air, yet it is a simple 

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The New Century Home Book 

matter. To change the under sheet, start at one 
side of the bed and roll up the sheet until the 
roll is close to the patient's body. This may 
be done without throwing off the outer bed cov- 
erings. Koll the fresh sheet lengthwise as far as 
the middle and place the roll alongside the roll 
of the old sheet, letting the unrolled part cover 
the mattress. Then gently turn the patient 
over the two rolls so that he rests upon the 
smooth part of the fresh sheet. Then pull out 
the old sheet and unroll the fresh sheet. If 
the patient is so ill that he cannot be rolled 
over, the rolled portions of the sheets may be 
gently pushed under his body. 

To change the upper sheet, spread the fresh 
sheet and a blanket over the outer covering of 
the bed. Let the patient, if he is able, or an- 
other person hold on to the sheet and blanket 
at the head of the bed while the old sheet and 
other covering is drawn out from under them 
at the foot of the bed. 

When a member of the family falls ill with 

a contagious disease and he cannot be removed 

to a hospital for treatment — which should 

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The New Century Home Book 

always be done if possible— great care must be 
exercised in isolating him from the rest of the 
family. If there are children in the home, they 
should be sent away if it can be done, even if 
the patient is well isolated. 

A room at the top of the house should be 
chosen for the sick room. It should be stripped 
of its furniture and thoroughly cleaned. Only 
such furniture should be put back into the 
room as is necessary, and this should be of the 
most simple kind. The carpet should not be 
put down again, and the pictures should be re- 
moved from the walls. If it is desirable to 
have curtains at the windows, they should be 
of the cheap sort, for they should be burned 

after the patient has recovered. Curtains or 

shades should be of a dark color, so that bright 

light may be excluded at will. 

The door of the sick room must be kept 

closed, and before it should be hung a sheet 

which should be frequently sprinkled with a 

solution of carbolic acid. 

Only the nurse and doctor should have access 

to the room, and the doctor will direct what 



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The New Century Home Book 

precautions they must take to prevent carrying 
contagion to others. 

Disinfectants should be constantly kept in 
the upper hall or room adjoining the sick room, 
and should be occasionally sprinkled all 
through the house. An excellent disinfectant 
is a solution of sulphate of zinc and salt in 
water. Use four ounces each of the sulphate of 
zinc and common salt to a gallon of water. A 
quantity of this disinfectant should be kept in 
the sick room, and everything that leaves the 
room should first be dipped into it. This ap- 
plies to knives, forks, spoons, dishes, etc., as 
well as to sheets, towels, etc., sent out to be 
washed. While disinfectants should be used 
in the sick room, fresh air secured by good 
ventilation is the best weapon against con- 
tagion. 

Besides the zinc disinfectant, a copperas solu- 
tion should be provided for the disinfection 
of discharges from the patient, drains, water- 
closets, cesspools, sewers, etc. Make the solu- 
tion by dissolving a pound and a half of cop- 
peras in a gallon of hot water. 

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Food for the Sick. 

The patient's food will depend largely upon 
the nature of his ailment. Its kind and the 
amount the patient should be permitted to eat 
must be prescribed by the physician. In serv- 
ing the food the more temptingly it is arranged 
on tray or side table the more pleasant it will 
be to the patient and the more good it will do 
him. If a small quantity of any article is 
ordered, let it be served in a small dish rather 
than in a large one. Half a tumblerful of water 
is more satisfjdng to the average patient if 
given to him in a small glass which it fills 
than if served in the tumbler. If the patient 
is in need of strengthening food, but has little 
appetite, he will eat more of a tastefully served 
meal than of one carelessly arranged. 

While the doctor should be relied upon to 
regulate the patient's diet, in his absence you 
must act for yourself, and you should know 
something about the qualities of different 
kinds of food, remembering that in all or- 
dinary circumstances the more easily digested 

food is the better for sick person or invalid. 

247 



The New Centtiiy Home Book 

In meats, etc., the more easily digested are 
roast beef, medium cooked rather than well 
done; beefsteak, tender and rare; broth, beef 
tea, broiled or stewed lamb, lamb broth, broiled 
or stewed chicken, chicken soup or broth, roast 
turkey, broiled, baked, or stewed sweetbreads, 
broiled, baked, or boiled trout, and broiled 
calves' liver, chopped fine. 

The more easily digested vegetables are peas, 
boiled and in soup; baked, stewed, or boiled 
cauliflower, raw cabbage, rice in puddings with- 
out eggs, boiled rice, and boiled or baked mush- 
rooms. 

Oranges, raspberries, and peaches are the 
best fruits for digestion. 

Milk stands at the head of all food for per- 
sons in good health as well as those who are ill. 
Eggs, served in any way except hard boiled; 
butter, dry toast, stale bread, and custards are 
all easily digested foods. 

Foods only partially digestible are mutton, 

well-cooked fresh pork, duck, salmon, lobster, 

calves' liver, potatoes, cabbage, beans, carrots, 

sweet potatoes, squash, celery, strawberries, 

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The New Century Home Book 

currants, blackberries, apples, warm bread, 
cake, cheese, and puddings. 

Foods that are difficult to digest, and which, 
therefore, should not be given to the sick if 
other is at hand, are veal, ham, game, clams, 
salt fish, sardines, fried oysters, kidneys, calves' 
brains, radishes, turnips, cucumbers, eggplant, 
oysterplant, pears, cherries, pineapples, ba- 
nanas, plums, pies, pastry, doughnuts, buns, 
drawn butter, and all boiled puddings. 

Great care should be used in giving drinking 
water to the patient to see that it is pure. Ice 
water should not be made by putting ice into the 
water, but by putting the water in bottles on 
the ice. Glasses or pitchers containing water 
should always be kept carefully covered. Water 
quickly becomes contaminated with the germs 
in foul or bad air. If the water is suspected 
of impurity, it should be boiled before using it. 
Do not give distilled water to drink except by 
the doctor's direction. 

Neither tea nor coffee should be given to a 
patient without the doctor's consent or instruc- 
tions. Both are stimulants, and either might 

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The New Century Home Book 

be the most harmful thing you could give the 
sick person. Tea contains several chemicals, 
and to many persons coffee acts as a laxative. In 
brewing tea for a patient never let it boil. For 
coffee use only freshly ground berries, and serve 
it without milk. Milk and coffee together are 
indigestible. Cocoa is better for the patient 
than chocolate, as a rule. 

Chicken jelly is often very palatable and 
nourishing for the sick person. To make it, 
cut up a chicken into small pieces and put 
them into a stone jar. Tightly cover the jar 
and place it in a preserving kettle in water and 
boil for three hours. Strain off the liquid and 
season it with salt and pepper. Sugar and 
lemon may be used for seasoning if preferred. 

To make calves' foot jelly, put two calves' 
feet into two quarts of water and boil until the 
water is reduced to a pint. Then strain into a 
dish and put away to cool, removing the fat. 

To make arrowroot jelly, boil a lemon peel 
in a pint of water until reduced one half. 
Make a thin paste of half an ounce of arrow- 
root and milk, put it into a cup, and fill the 

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The New Century Home Book 

cup with milk. Eemove the lemon peel from 
the boiling water and add the cupful of arrow- 
root and milk. Sweeten with sugar to taste 
and boil five minutes. 

Mix a quarter of a pound of rice with half 
a pound of sugar and enough water to cover 
the mixture. Boil until it becomes glutinous, 
strain, season to taste, and let it cool. This 
makes an excellent rice jelly. 

Mutton broth is often ordered for the patient. 
To make it, chop up a pound of lean meat, sea- 
son with a little pepper and salt, and let it boil 
hard for twenty minutes, and strain. Other 
broths are made in the same way. 

If beef broth is ordered and you have no ex- 
tract of beef with which to make it, chop up 
fine two pounds of raw beef and pass it through 
a lemon squeezer or a meat press, or press it 
between a couple of plates, and thus obtain the 
extract. 

To make barley water, boil a small cupful of 

barley in a pint of water until it is reduced one 

half. Season with sugar and lemon juice or 

sweet orange. 

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The New Century Home Book 

Eice milk is made by beating half a cupful 
of ground rice into milk enough to make a thin 
batter, adding half a pint of milk and boiling 
slowly for five minutes. Flavor as in barley 
water. 

To make flaxseed tea, put half an ounce of 
whole flaxseed into two cupfuls of cold water 
and boil slowly until the mixture is as thick as 
cream. Put into a bowl four ounces of pow- 
dered sugar and an ounce of pulverized gum 
arable. Pour over this the flaxseed and stir 
until it is dissolved. Flavor with the juice 
of a lemon and strain for use. 

Oatmeal gruel is made by mixing two table- 
spoonfuls of the oatmeal with a little cold 
water, stirring it into a pint of boiling water, 
and letting it boil for an hour. Then strain 
and add a little salt. Make Indian meal gruel 
in the same way. 

Poultices. 

These are used for allaying inflammation and 

for soothing purposes, or as counter irritants. 

For the latter mustard is generally employed. 

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The New Century Home Book 

For the former the most common poultices are 
made of flaxseed or bread. 

To make a flaxseed poultice, scald a vessel to 
insure its being hot, and pour in a little hot 
water. Into this stir ground flaxseed until it 
is of the consistency of a thick paste and well 
mixed. Spread this mixture about an inch 
thick upon a piece of thick muslin or linen and 
put over it a piece of thin cloth, which will 
serve to keep the flaxseed from sticking to the 
skin. Apply the poultice while it is hot, and 
keep it warm by covering thickly with flannel. 
A poultice should be changed every two hours, 
hours, the fresh poultice being ready to apply 
before the old one is removed. 

A bread poultice is made like the flaxseed, 
using stale bread crumbs instead of flaxseed. 

A bread and milk poultice is made by sub- 
stituting milk for the water. 

Charcoal poultices are sometimes ordered for 
certain kinds of wounds. These are made by 
adding to a flaxseed poultice half an ounce of 
charcoal and sprinkling a little of the charcoal 
over the poultice. 

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The New Century Home Book 

To make a hop poultice, pour boiling water 
over the hops and set them aside to steep for 
several minutes. Then squeeze through a 
strainer and spread upon a cloth. 

Many physicians regard beet poultices as 
very useful. These poultices are made with 
fresh beets — just from the garden, if possible 
— pounded into a fine mash. 

The best mustard poultice or plaster is made 
of a mixture of one part of mustard to four 
parts of flour, for an adult, and six or seven 
parts of flour if for a child. Stir the mixture 
into a thin paste with warm water and spread 
it thinly on a piece of cloth or brown paper, 
and cover with a thin cloth. Do not use boil- 
ing water in making the plaster. Oatmeal, 
bran, Indian meal, or flaxseed may be used 

instead of the flour. 

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The New Century Home Book 



Before tbe Doctor Comee 

■\ /ERY many lives are sacrificed every year 
through ignorance of what to do before 
the doctor comes in the case of illness or acci- 
dents. Many and many a case of prolonged 
and fatal illness might be avoided by the 
prompt use of simple home remedies taken at 
the first sign of trouble and without waiting 
for the family physician. Many and many an 
accident has proved fatal when the life of the 
victim might have been saved had those around 
i\im known how to treat his injuries while 
waiting for medical help to come. Many and 
many a supposed drowned person has been 
allowed to really die because no one near knew 
how to restore suspended animation, and it was 
too late when the doctor arrived. 

Do not let any member of your family or 
anyone in your community lose his life because 
of your ignorance of what to do in any ordi- 
nary emergency. Look upon it as a part of 

255 



The New Century Home Book 

your duty to your family and to society to 
know how best to aid the victim of an accident, 
mishap, or sudden illness. It is more than 
your duty. To have saved the life of a fellow- 
being or to have eased his sufferings brings 
with it the highest pleasure. When that being 
is one of your own loved ones this pleasure is 
enhanced a thousandfold. So, too, the pain 
and anguish of losing a dear one through your 
own ignorance of simple things to do in an 
emergency are something that cannot be meas- 
ured. 

Do not neglect another day to learn at least 
the first principles of rendering first aid to the 
injured. See that every member of your family 
does the same. There is nothing hard or dif- 
ficult about it. A child can readily understand 
most of the things to be done in caring for the 
victim of an accident. You cannot tell what 
moment you may need the knowledge. When 
that moment comes do not let it find you 
unprepared. The ability to properly meet an 
emergency whenever it may arise may mean 

the saving of more than one life. 

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The New Century Home Book 

Fainting. 

Be careful not to assume when a person sud- 
denly loses consciousness that he has simply 
fainted. Fainting is only one form of uncon- 
sciousness, and is due to the failure of the heart 
to supply the brain with a sufficient quantity 
of blood. Unconsciousness may come from 
various other and more serious causes. 

In fainting proper the blood recedes from 
the face, leaving it very pale, and the pulse be- 
comes very feeble, sometimes failing altogether. 
Lay the patient down flat, and see that the 
head is not raised. If the patient is on a bed 
or sofa, let the head lie over the edge, so that 
it will be below the level of the body. If this 
cannot be done, raise the feet so as to increase 
the flow of blood to the head. Sometimes this 
alone will revive the sufferer. Cold water 
should be sprinkled over the face, and smelling 
salts or ammonia held to the nose. 

See that the clothing is loosened, and win- 
dows opened to let in plenty of fresh air. If 
the faint does not readily give way to this treat- 
ment, apply hot cloths or a hot water bottle to 
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The New Century Home Book 

the pit of the stomach, or place a mustard 
plaster over the heart. When the patient re- 
covers consciousness he should remain quiet for 
at least an hour. 

Burns and Scalds. 

The first and chief thing to do in the case 
of a burn is to keep the air away from it. To 
do this cover the burn with common baking — 
not washing — soda, moistened with a little 
water, or olive oil, sweet oil, fresh lard, linseed 
oil, vaseline, starch, wheat flour, cold cream, 
or any fresh fat. Over this wrap flannel, cot- 
ton batting, or several thicknesses of cotton 
cloth. Use oil in preference to baking soda or 
flour if the skin is broken. Carron oil, made 
by shaking together equal parts of limewater 
and linseed oil, is an excellent application for 
burns. 

When a person's clothing has caught fire do 

not try to put out the flames by throwing water 

over him. The flames must be smothered. 

Throw the sufferer down and roll him up in 

anything of wool that happens to be at hand — 

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The New Century Home Book 

rug, table cover, blanket, coat, or cloak. If 
nothing of this sort is at hand, roll him over 
and over on the ground as rapidly as possible. 
Pour water on parts of the clothing still 
smoldering after the flames are extinguished. 
Do not try to remove the clothing except by care- 
fully cutting it away from the body, so as to 
leave any part of it that adheres to the flesh. 

Shock. 

In the case of severe burns the shock suffered 
by the patient may be even more dangerous to 
his life than the burns. Heat and stimulants 
are the best treatment for shock due to burns 
or any other cause. Apply hot cloths to the 
chest and abdomen, and put other cloths, hot 
water bottles, or heated bricks along the sides 
of the body, under the armpits and between the 
thighs. Then wrap the patient in blankets and 
give him hot drinks every ten or fifteen minutes 
until the doctor arrives and takes charge of the 
treatment. If the shock is the result of an in- 
jury to the head, do not give the patient any 

stimulating drink without the doctor's advice. 

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Bruises. 

Place over the bruised place a cloth saturated 
with vinegar, or hot water, or extract of witch- 
hazel, or paint the bruise with tincture of 
iodine. Keep the cloth wet until the pain has 
ceased. 

If the bruise has been caused by a blow or 
fall severe enough to cause injury to internal 
organs, treat the patient as for shock and send 
for the doctor without delay. 

Cuts. 

To stop the bleeding is the first thing to be 
done in the case of a cut, whether it be slight 
or deep. In simple cuts the bleeding may be 
stopped by the application of cold water, ice, or 
moderate pressure to the wound. Then press 
the edges of the wound together and cover with 
a piece of adhesive plaster. 

When a vein or an artery has been severed 
there must be no delay in stopping the hem- 
orrhage, or the results will be fatal. Lay the 
patient down with the head only slightly raised, 

but raise the part of the body in which is the 

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wound as much higher than the rest as you can. 
Make a pad or compress of your handkerchief 
or any convenient cloth and lay it over the cut, 
first bringing the edges of the wound together, 
if possible. Fasten the compress over the 
wound tightly with another piece of cloth as a 
bandage, and wet it with cold water. 

Pressure directly over the wound is the only 
way to stop the bleeding when the cut is on the 
trunk of the body. If the wound is in the leg 
or arm and the compress over it fails to stop 
the flow of blood, pressure must be applied to 
the artery. This is done with the tourniquet. 
In the leg the artery is in front and a trifle be- 
low the groin. In the arm it is on the inner 
side and under the biceps muscle. Place over 
the artery a small piece of wood, or a small 
stone, or a handkerchief tied into a hard knot, 
and over this and around the limb tie a towel 
or handkerchief, or a suspender, if necessary. 
Run a stick between the cloth and the limb and 
turn it until the cloth presses the pad down 
very hard upon the artery and the bleeding 

ceases. 

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Ragged Wounds. 

When the skin and flesh have been torn and 
lacerated the wound should be carefully and 
thoroughly washed out with warm water. It 
should then be covered with a cloth dipped in 
warm water and bandaged, taking care not to 
tie the bandage too tightly. In lacerated 
wounds, as well as in all other cases in which 
water is applied, it is well to use a few drops 
of carbolic acid in the water, but if it is not at 
hand, do not wait for it. Shock is generally 
present with ragged wounds, and must be 
treated as already explained. 

Severed Limbs. 
When a hand or foot or finger has been lost 
in an accident the stump should be treated just 
as a ragged wound. The tourniquet will prob- 
ably be necessary to stop the bleeding, and the 
shock to the patient will require watchful care. 

Broken Bones. 
When a bone is broken but is not pushed 

into the surrounding flesh and the skin is un- 

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The New Century Home Book 

broken it is called a simple fracture. When 
the flesh about the bone is torn and lacerated 
and the skin is broken it is known as a com- 
pound fracture. Such a wound is, of course, 
much more serious than a simple fracture. 

In every case of a fractured bone the first 
thought should be to move the patient as little 
as possible before the doctor or surgeon has 
attended to the wound. It is better when pos- 
sible to keep the patient at or near the place 
where he was hurt, for every movement of the 
injured limb tends to aggravate the wound. 
Eemember that a broken bone does not need 
to be reset at once. Under all ordinary circum- 
stances leave the resetting to the surgeon. 

Broken Leg or Arm. 

Let the injured person lie in as comfortable 
position as he can and place the broken limb 
on a pillow, or the softest thing at hand. Put 
a wet cloth over the fracture and keep it drip- 
ping with cold water. This treatment is suf- 
ficient if the patient can be kept where the 

accident happened until the doctor arrives. 

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The New Century Home Book 

If the patient must be taken away, or if a 
physician cannot be obtained without a long 
delay, treatment must be on somewhat different 
lines. Having put the limb on a pillow or 
other soft rest, draw the limb into its natural 
position as well as you can, being very careful 
to use only gentle force so as not to injure the 
flesh around the broken edges of the bone. One 
hand should be above the fracture and the 
other below it. 

Take two pieces of thin board, pasteboard, 
book covers, or anything at hand that is at all 
stiff and as long as the broken bone and as wide 
as the limb. Make a thick pad of cotton bat- 
ting or the softest material at hand, and gently 
place the limb upon it, taking care always not 
to move the broken bone out of its position. 
Place one of the splints on each side of the 
limb, and with handkerchiefs or cloths tie the 
splints and pad firmly to the limb, above and 
below the fracture, so that the broken bone 
cannot be thrown out of its place. Do not tie a 
strip directly over the fracture. If nothing 

better is at hand, you can make a pad out of 

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The New Century Home Book 

leaves, or hay, or grass, or 3'our own coat or 
waistcoat. For splints you can use sticks, 
canes, anything that will not easily bend. If 
there is absolutely nothing at hand for splints, 
you can tie the injured limb, if it is a leg, to 
the patient's other leg. 

Broken Forearm. 

Gently draw the broken bone into its natural 
position, make a soft pad, and bind it on the 
arm together with splints placed one above and 
the other under the arm. The splints should 
reach below the wrists. Throw a sling around 
the patient's neck, and place the arm in it. 

Broken Collar Bone. 

If a physician can be summoned where the 

accident occurs, simply lay the injured person 

flat on his back and keep him perfectly quiet 

until the doctor comes. If it is necessary to 

move him, make a pad of your handkerchief 

and place it under the armpit. Lay the hand 

and forearm across the chest, and bind the 

elbow to the patient's side. 

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The New Century Home Book 
Broken Ribs. 

Bandage the whole chest tightly with cloths, 
and keep the patient perfectly quiet while wait- 
ing for the doctor. 

Broken Jaw. 

Press the jaws tightly together and tie them 
with a bandage around the head, so that they 
cannot part. 

Broken Skull. 

Put the patient on his back, let his head be 
raised a trifle, and keep it covered with a cloth 
wet with cold water. If possible, he should 
remain in a darkened room until the doctor has 
cared for him. Under no circumstances should 
stimulants be given to a person with a frac- 
tured skull except under the orders of the 
physician. 

Dislocation of Finger. 

Simply pull the finger bones into place and 
bind the hand so that the finger cannot be 
moved. 

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The New Century Home Book 
Dislocated Jaw. 

Wrap your thumbs with pieces of cloth and, 
with one on each side of the patient's mouth 
on the back teeth of the lower jaw, press 
down and then backward until the jaw springs 
into place. If your thumbs are not protected, 
they may be cut by the teeth as the jaws snap 
together. 

Dislocated Shoulder. 

Place the patient flat on his back and sit 
down on the floor beside him. Put your foot 
in the armpit on the injured side and draw 
the arm down and forward over his chest. The 
pull should be steady and gentle. Be careful 
not to try to jerk the bone into place. If the 
strong but gentle and steady pull does not set 
the bone, it is better to wait for the doctor, if 
he can be called in a reasonable time. 

In all dislocations it is wiser to do nothing 

more than to cover the joint with wet cloths 

and leave all other treatment to the physician. 

The directions given here are for carrying out 

only when a doctor cannot reach the patient in 

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The New Century Home Book 

a short time. There is great danger of injur- 
ing the ligaments that hold the bones in place 
in treatment by an inexpert person, and this 
risk should be avoided if possible. 

Sprains. 

Hold the joint in water as hot as can be 
borne an hour or more, taking care that the 
water is kept hot by adding a fresh supply as 
it cools. Then bandage the joint so that it 
cannot be moved, but do not tie the bandage 
so tightly as in the case of a broken bone. The 
sprain will not be relieved unless the joint is 
kept perfectly quiet. 

Choking. 

If the patient is an adult, slap him violently 
on the back. If this does not relieve him, place 
him standing with chest pressing against the 
wall and strike him a hard blow between the 
shoulders. If the choking person is a child, 
give the chest a quick and strong squeeze with 
the hands at the sides. 

If the cause of the choking lodges in the 



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The New Century Home Book 

throat and cannot be reached by thrusting the 
finger down as far as possible, a physician 
should be sent for with all speed. While wait- 
ing for him continue the treatment mentioned 
unless it is found that the obstruction is not 
great enough to seriously interfere with breath- 
ing. In that case simply keep the patient quiet 
until the doctor comes. 

If the patient ceases to breathe, lay him flat 
on his back and pull his arms up and over his 
head so that the hands rest on the top of the 
head. Then lower the arms and press them 
on the chest. Repeat this movement at the rate 
of about sixteen times a minute. 

When a child has swallowed a button, or 
anything of that sort, the best way is to let him 
alone. Giving the child an emetic or a purga- 
tive will do him no good and may do a great 
deal of harm. If the thing swallowed has 
sharp or rough edges, give him plenty of pota- 
toes and cheese to eat. 

Relief is sometimes obtained by letting the 

suiferer swallow the white of an egg, repeating 

in two minutes if necessary. 

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Obstructions in" the Nose. 
If a foreign body which has lodged in the 
nose cannot be easily removed with the fingers, 
be careful not to make matters worse by poking 
it further into the nostril. Breathe into the 
nose a bit of snuff or popper, or tickle the op- 
posite nostril with a feather, so as to cause 
sneezing, which will usually remove the ob- 
struction. If it fails, wait for medical help. 

Bodies in the Ear. 

If an insect gets into the ear, kill it by pour- 
ing in a little sweet oil, and then wash it out 
by pouring in a little warm water. If a pea 
or bean has lodged in the ear, as often happens 
with children, do not use water to remove it. 
Use a small scoop or bent probe. 

Cinders in the Eye. 
Cinders, dust, sand, or any foreign substance 
getting into the eye should be removed, if pos- 
sible, before they have had time to cause in- 
flammation. Close the eye until it is filled with 

tears; then turn back the lid and remove the 

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The New Century Home Book 

substance with the edge of a fine handkerchief, 
or with a long hair plucked from the head and 
held as a loop. If the substance does not 
readily yield to this treatment, it is safer to 
appeal to a physician. To neglect anything 
affecting the eye is to run the risk of seriously 
injuring the sight. 

Snake-bites. 

Suck the wound as quickly as possible so as 

to draw out the poison, but be careful not to 

swallow the saliva. If the bite is on a leg or 

arm, tie a cord tightly around the limb above 

the wound to prevent the spread of the poison 

through the system. Alcoholic stimulants may 

be given, but the common notion that complete 

intoxication is necessary in snake-bites is 

groundless. If no physician can be called and 

the bite appears to be serious, the wound may 

be cauterized by thrusting into it the end of a 

small iron or steel wire or knitting needle or 

the point of a penknife heated until it is white 

hot. When possible this treatment should be 

left to the doctor. 

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The New Century Home Book 

Dog-bites. 

If the wound has been inflicted by a dog 
which is at all suspected of having the rabies, 
it should be quickly washed with water and 
sucked, if possible, as in the case of a snake- 
bite. If on arm or leg, tie a cord tightly 
around the limb not far above the wound. 
Then, if a doctor cannot be quickly obtained, 
the wound should be cauterized as directed for 
snake-bites or by the use of caustic. Then un- 
tie the cord above the wound and keep the part 
covered with wet cloths. Cauterization should 
not be resorted to if there is any doubt that the 
dog is mad, and in every possible case it should 
be left for the doctor to attend to. 

Fear frequently causes hydrophobia to fol- 
low the bite of a harmless dog. The dog that 
has bitten a person, therefore, should not be 
killed until it is perfectly certain that it is mad. 
Otherwise there will always be doubt in the 
case of a harmless dog, and the patient will 
have a good excuse for the fear that may prove 
fatal. Eemember that dogs are often called 

mad without good reason. 

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The New Century Home Book 

Stings. 
When stung by an insect or bitten by a 
spider, suck the wound vigorously for a mo- 
ment, and then cover it with a cloth wet with 
quite strong ammonia. A mixture of equal 
parts of common baking soda and salt well 
rubbed into the wound will often give relief. 

Sunstroke. 

The symptoms of sunstroke are headache, 
dizziness, faintness, nausea, weakness of the 
knees, and "seeing double." The face becomes 
red and the head and body very hot and dry, 
perspiration being absent. The pulse becomes 
strong and very rapid. These symptoms are 
often accompanied with delirium and con- 
vulsions. 

The first thing in treating sunstroke is to 

reduce the great temperature of the body. 

Strip the patient and sprinkle him with cold 

water, or wrap him in a sheet which is kept 

saturated with cold water. At the same time 

rub the body with ice. Keep up this treatment 

until consciousness returns. Sometimes the 
(18) 273 



The New Century Home Book 

patient again loses consciousness. In that case 
repeat the cold water treatment. If the patient 
cannot be stripped at once, wring out cloths in 
ice water and apply to the head, back of the 
neck and hands. Never give whisky to a per- 
son suffering from sunstroke. 

Simple heat exhaustion calls for rest and 
quiet only in a room as cool as possible. Ice 
applications and cold baths are unnecessary, 
and alcoholic stimulants must be shunned. 

Frost-bite. 

Remember first of all not to carry a frost- 
bitten person near a fire. Place him in a mod- 
erately warm room and rub the body well with 
hot flannels or with the hands alone. Give him 
hot tea, coffee, or beef tea in small quantities, 
but often. 

If a limb or ear or nose is frozen, rub it with 

snow if this can be had. If not, rub with 

cloths dipped in cold water. Keep the patient 

away from the fire until circulation has been 

fully restored, and then he should sit at some 

distance from the heat at first. 

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The New Century Home Book 

Drowning. 

Never assume that a person taken from the 
water is drowned, even if he has been in the 
water for hours. In very many cases a person 
who appears to be drowned is only apparently 
so, and his life may be saved by proper treat- 
ment. 

The first thing to be done when an apparent- 
ly drowned person is taken from the water is to 
bring about a return of breathing. Circulation 
and warmth must be secondary considerations. 
Waste no time carrying the patient away from 
the spot where found, unless in very bad 
weather and shelter is very near. Treat him in 
the open air. 

Loosen all the patient's clothing and if pos- 
sible strip him to the waist. Koll up a coat if 
no pillow or blanket is at hand and place the 
patient upon his face, with the coat under his 
chest and his forehead resting upon one of his 
arms. This allows the water to flow from 
mouth, throat, and lungs, while it throws the 
tongue forward so as to clear the entrance to 

the windpipe. Fold a handkerchief over your 

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The New Century Home Book 

fingers and wipe out the patient's mouth and 
back of the throat. Press gently but firmly 
between the shoulder blades and on the sides, 
and thus further aid the escape of water the 
patient has swallowed. 

Be especially careful not to lift the patient 
into a sitting position even for a moment, for 
that will force water to the bottom of the 
lungs and prevent the success of all efforts to 
restore breathing. 

If the treatment up to this point has not re- 
stored the patient's breath, turn him upon one 
side, straighten out the arm upon which his 
forehead rested, and let the side of his head 
rest upon it. Do not turn the head backward 
so far that the tongue can drop back and close 
the windpipe. If the tongue does fall back, 
pull it forward at once. If snuff or smelling 
salts are at hand, apply them to the nose or 
tickle the nose with a feather or straw. Cold 
water may be dashed upon the head and chest, 
or the patient may be given a hard slap with 
your open hand on the chest. 

All this must be done with the utmost 

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The New Century Home Book 

promptness, for the patient must not be kept 
lying on his side more than a few seconds. 
If he still shows no signs of returning life, 
the next effort must be to induce artificial 
respiration. 

Turn the patient upon his face as at first, 
with the roll under his chest and his forehead 
upon an arm. Press the back between the 
shoulder blades and press the sides. Then turn 
the patient upon the side just as before for not 
to exceed four seconds. Again turn him upon 
his face, and keep on alternating these move- 
ments at the rate of not more than fifteen 
times a minute. Keep a close watch upon the 
tongue during this treatment, and see that it 
does not fall back and close the windpipe. If 
it keeps falling back, tie a string around it 
back of its thickest part, draw the ends of the 
string out at the corners of the mouth, and tie 
them under the chin. 

While the patient is thus being turned from 
face to side and side to face his hands and 
feet should be wiped dry, but without much 

rubbing. If it is possible to slip on dry cloth- 

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The New Century Home Book 

ing, do so, but do not try it if it interferes with 
the treatment. 

Keep up this treatment for fully ten minutes 
if no results are shown before that time. Then, 
if breathing is still absent, another method of 
inducing artificial respiration must be tried. 
The treatment already applied will have ex- 
pelled all water that may have collected in the 
lungs. 

Place the patient upon his back on a board 
or where the ground is flat, and put under his 
head and shoulder a tightly rolled coat or 
blanket. Draw the tongue out of the mouth 
and tie it as already described. Kneel behind 
the patient's head, grasp the arms just above 
the elbows and draw them upward and over 
the head with a gentle but steady and firm 
movement, until the hands touch the ground. 
Hold the arms in this position for two seconds. 
By this movement the ribs are elevated and the 
chest expanded so that air may enter. While 
the arms are extended two seconds the air has 
time to fill the lungs. 

Bend the patient's elbows, turn the arms for- 

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The New Century Home Book 

ward until they rest again by the side of the 
chest, and press the chest with them gently 
and firmly. Hold them in this position for 
two seconds. This movement will press out of 
the lungs the air admitted by the first move- 
ment. 

Eepeat these two movements over and over 
at the rate of fifteen or not to exceed sixteen 
times a minute. Do not give up hope of the 
success of this treatment for hours. Cases are 
frequent in which persons apparently drowned 
have been restored after two hours of this arti- 
ficial respiration, and there are several cases 
in which breathing has been restored after five 
hours' steady work. 

Supposing the efforts to induce breathing 
have succeeded, the treatment must then be to 
restore circulation and warmth. If the first 
effort to breathe is a gasp, try to time the 
movements by the gasps. When the patient is 
once more breathing rub the limbs in an up- 
ward direction briskly and with considerable 
pressure. Throw a blanket or any other cover- 
ing over the patient and keep up the rubbing. 

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The New Century Home Book 

Place hot water bottles or heated bricks under 
the armpits, between the thighs, and at the 
feet. Put several layers of warm flannel over 
the pit of the stomach. As the hot water bot- 
tles cool replace them with others at about the 
temperature of the body. When the patient is 
ready to swallow let him have hot tea or coffee, 
or weak ginger tea every few minutes. If diffi- 
culty in breathing continues for some time, 
put a mustard plaster over the chest. 

Suffocation. 

As in the case of apparent drowning, the fact 
that hours have elapsed since a person was suf- 
focated should not prevent efforts to restore 
him. Lives may often be saved after the per- 
son has been apparently dead four or five 
hours. The treatment is the same for all cases 
of suffocation without regard to the causes. 
Throw cold water into the face, slap the patient 
sharply on the chest, and hold ammonia or 
smelling salts to the nose. If this treatment 
fails, then try to induce breathing by artificial 

respiration, exactly as in drowning cases. 

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The New Century Home Book 

Concussion" of the Brain. 

This is due to a heavy blow or fall in which 
the patient has struck upon his head. The 
symptoms are apparent stupidity, nausea, 
faintness, shivering as if cold, and partial or 
complete insensibility. 

Place the patient flat on his back, with his 
head slightly higher than the rest of the body. 
Loosen all clothing about the neck and waist. 
When the patient shows faintness and shiver- 
ing cover chest and abdomen with flannel 
cloths which have been dipped in hot water, 
and place hot water bottles or heated bricks 
around the body. When the first shock has 
passed ice or ice water may be applied to the 
head. Never give the patient alcoholic stimu- 
lants in case of injury to the head. 

Unconsciousness. 

In every case in which you are uncertain of 

the cause or kind of unconsciousness send for 

a physician at once. While waiting for the 

doctor lay the patient on bis back, and, if the 

face appears flushed, raise the head and cover 

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it with cloths wet with cold water. Do not 
raise the head if the face is pale. Give no 
stimulants if the face is flushed. Loosen all 
the clothing, especially about the neck. 

Convulsions. 

Teething sometimes causes these attacks in 
children, and occasionally they are due to im- 
perfect digestion. They are sometimes fore- 
runners of serious illness, and it is therefore 
wise to send for a physician as soon as a child 
is attacked. While waiting for the doctor place 
the child in a bath of water as hot as your 
bared arm can stand and lay on his head a 
cloth dipped in cold water. If this does not 
quickly relieve the spasms, give the child a tea- 
spoonful of ipecac and a glass of warm water. 
If the child cannot be made to drink, thrust 
your finger down its throat. The object is to 
induce vomiting. If no doctor is at hand and 
the convulsions continue after the child has 
been in the bath a quarter of an hour, he should 
be taken from the water and given an injection 

of soap and warm water. 

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Croup. 

Whenever your child shows the symptoms of 
croup — the choking and characteristic hoarse 
cough — send for the doctor. It may very likely 
be only a temporary attack which your home 
treatment will relieve, but you cannot be sure 
of that, and if it is more serious, the sooner the 
physician is present the better. Before the 
doctor comes give the child a teaspoonful of 
syrup of ipecac every ten minutes until he 
vomits. Then let him drink a glass of warm 
water. Put his feet in a hot mustard bath and 
put a mustard plaster over his throat and 
upper chest. 

Nosebleed. 

Do not bend ov.er the head. Apply cold 

water or ice to the back of the neck and the 

bridge of the nose. If convenient, put the feet 

into as hot water as they can bear. Throw the 

head back and take long breaths through the 

nose. Snuff up a strong solution of alum in 

water, cold water, or vinegar and water in 

equal parts. 

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Poisons. 

In every ease of poisoning, no matter what 
the cause or kind, send posthaste for the doc- 
tor. Then turn to the patient and lose not a 
moment in caring for him. The first consider- 
ation is to cause vomiting and to empty the 
stomach. Give the patient water at once — ^hot, 
cold, clean, or dirty, whichever is nearest at 
hand and can be given the quickest. Tepid 
water is best, but do not lose time in get- 
ting it. Put a little salt or mustard in each 
tumblerful of the water if it is handy. If three 
or four glasses of this water do not cause vom- 
iting, thrust your forefinger down the patient's 
throat as far as possible and hold it there sev- 
eral seconds. Use anything at hand that will 
serve the purpose. After the first vomiting 
keep up the treatment so that the stomach may 
be completely emptied, if possible. 

In general, the antidotes for acid poisons are 
alkalies, while acids are antidotes for alkali 
poisons. Acids have a sour taste and smell. 
Very quickly after an acid is swallowed the pa- 
tient will be seized with severe pains in the 

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stomach and abdomen, nausea, and faintness. 
The feet and hands become cold and clammy, 
and the membrane lining the mouth will be 
wrinkled. If the acid has touched the patient's 
skin or clothing, it will leave a burn on the skin 
and a discolored spot on the clothing. When 
an alkali has been swallowed there will be great 
heat in the patient's throat, severe pains in the 
stomach, bloody vomiting, hiccoughs, colic, and 
great weakness. Besides these general symp- 
toms, each poison has its own characteristic 
symptoms, but the thing to be known before 
the doctor comes is the nature of the poison 
rather than its exact description. 

Having induced copious vomiting as di- 
rected, discover if possible the kind of poison 
the patient has taken so as to guide the next 
treatment. If you cannot find out the nature 
of the poison — and very little time should be 
spent in the effort — follow the vomiting by 
giving the patient liberal quantities of milk, 
raw eggs, oil of any sort, flour stirred in water, 
or gruel — ^whichever is at hand or can be the 

most quickly obtained. Then, if there are 

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signs of collapse, give stimulating drinks, such 
as hot coffee or tea, or hartshorn in water. Do 
not stop to brew tea or coffee in the usual way. 
Pour hot water on the tea leaves or coffee, stir 
it up, and let the patient swallow leaves or 
coffee grounds as well as the water. 

If the poison is known to he an alkali, give 
vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, flaxseed tea, 
or slippery elm. If it is an acid poison, give 
soap and water, hartshorn, lime, chalk, whiting 
mixed with milk, whitewash, or wood ashes. 
If nothing else is at hand, scrape plaster from 
the wall or use tooth powder. Cooking soda 
or magnesia may also be given. 

If the poison swallowed is arsenic, give the 
patient large quantities of limewater and milk, 
or flaxseed tea or slippery elm, or magnesia and 
castor oil in tablespoonful doses. 

Paris green calls for the same treatment as 
arsenic. 

When the poison is carbolic acid rub the 

patient's legs and arms vigorously and keep the 

body as warm as possible. Give Epsom salts 

in water. 

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The New Century Home Book 

If the poison is corrosive sublimate or other 
preparations of mercury, give the patient white 
of eggs and wheat flour in milk. 

If the sufferer has taken phosphorus, give 
him slippery elm or flaxseed tea. 

When the poison is nitrate of silver or lunar 
caustic let the patient take quantities of salt, 
which is both an emetic and antidote. 

In the case of opium poisoning the main 
thing before the doctor arrives is to keep the 
patient awake. Keep him on his feet and make 
him walk up and down. Slap him vigorously 
with a wet towel, or pinch him, or use any 
other method to keep him awake. If he is al- 
lowed to fall asleep, death will almost surely be 
the result. 

Similar treatment should be given in any 
case of narcotic poisoning, such as morphine, 
bitter almonds, poppy, or tobacco. The general 
symptoms of narcotic poisoning are numbness, 
stupor, nausea, partial or full delirium, pain in 
body and limbs, and slow breathing. The pu- 
pils of the eyes are contracted, and the patient 

often acts as if intoxicated. 

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When poisonous mushrooms have been eaten 
give large doses of Epsom salts. Then give 
stimulating drinks, heat the body, and rub the 
limbs briskly. 

Milk and the white of eggs should be given 
when a zinc poison has been swallowed. These 
are also the antidotes for lead poisoning. 

When iodine is the poison give starch and 
wheat flour in water and apply hot cloths to the 
stomach and abdomen. 

If the poison is a volatile oil, such as cre- 
osote, oil of turpentine, or fusel oil, give salt 
in water, white of eggs and camphor, and cover 
the stomach and abdomen with hot cloths. 

In the case of chloroform or laudanum 

poisoning give the patient strong coffee and 

dash cold water over head and chest. Keep 

him awake and, if necessary, resort to artificial 

respiration, following the method described for 

resuscitating the apparently drowned. 

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Xearning Hnotber Xanguagc 

'T'HE ideal way to learn a foreign language — 
French, German, Spanish, Italian, etc. — 
is to live in the country in which the language 
is spoken. In that case it is better to live with 
some family rather than in a hotel or ordinary 
boarding house. The middle class of a country 
is usually sufficiently educated to give a good 
knowledge of the tongue. The family should 
be one no member of which speaks English. 
You will thus avoid the temptation to resort 
to your own language whenever you meet 
trouble in making yourself understood. If you 
must speak in the foreign tongue or rely upon 
the sign language, your progress in acquiring 
the language will be much more rapid. 

The knowledge gained by residence with the 
foreign family should be supplemented by 
reading the books of the country and its news- 
papers. Select the books of its best writers and 

read the newspapers which are the least given 
(19) 289 



The New Century Home Book 

to sensation mongering. The higher the class 
of the newspaper the better and purer will be 
its German, or French, or whatever its lan- 
guage. 

If you can afford the expense, which, as a 
rule, is comparatively moderate, a capable 
tutor or instructor may be employed to give 
you a broader knowledge of the language than 
mere conversation with the family will bestow. 
He can aid you in mastering and under- 
standing the peculiar idioms of the country, 
the construction of sentences, and the like. 

But the vast majority of would-be students of 
a foreign tongue cannot go abroad to learn the 
language. For these the way at home is well 
defined and not hard to follow. If you are not 
a housekeeper, arrange to board or lodge with a 
family whose members speak at home the lan- 
guage you wish to learn. You will find this 
one of the very best aids for the student. 

If it is inconvenient or impracticable to 

board or lodge with a foreign-speaking family, 

it is well to employ an instructor who -converses 

principally in the language you are studying. 

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If he is wisely chosen, such an instructor will 
greatly shorten the time you will need in which 
to become proficient in the language. 

Next to living with a foreign family and em- 
ploying an instructor, it is desirable to asso- 
ciate as much as possible with those who speak 
the language. In selecting these associates, 
however, you should seek only those who are 
well educated in their native tongue. Associa- 
tion with those who do not speak good French, 
German, etc., will do you more harm than good 
in your study. 

In what has thus far been said it has been 
assumed that you have obtained and studied 
a text-book of the language you are seeking to 
acquire, and that your desire is to learn to 
speak the language instead of simply to read it. 
Careful study of a language in text-books is 
highly beneficial, and, indeed, almost a neces- 
sity, but very few will be able to speak the 
tongue merely from a study of the books, no 
matter how thorough this has been. Only 
when a person has unusual linguistic talents 

can this be done with satisfaction. To the 

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average student, however, who is hampered by 
a lack of money to go abroad or engage a tutor, 
the study of text-books, supplemented by visits 
to foreign-born residents in their homes, shops, 
and churches, attendance upon lectures when- 
ever possible, etc., will in a surprisingly short 
time give a fair knowledge of the language 
and the ability to speak it fairly well after ear- 
nest work. 

The so-called "short aids" to a language 
should be selected with great care. Very many 
of those offered to the public are of little or no 
practical value. Some of these aids, however, 
are what they purport to be, and these may be 
studied with real profit. In choosing a text- 
book of this kind you should seek the advice of 
some one well versed in the language. Your 
own judgment is apt to be at fault. Most lan- 
guages are very idiomatic, reflecting the genius 
of the people, and the best "short aids" are 
those which best aid you to acquire and under- 
stand the colloquial and idiomatic expressions 
of the foreign tongue. 

In learning any foreign language your chief 

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The New Century Home Book 

need will be unlimited patience and persever- 
ance. These are the qualities that make for 
success in any undertaking of any nature. The 
desire and ability to listen is most important. 
To listen well is a gift from Nature that all 
do not enjoy, but you can train yourself to be a 
good listener, and thus to get the most out of 
what you hear. 

Avoid overconfidence in addressing a for- 
eigner whose language you are trying to learn. 
It will cause him to laugh or sneer at your mis- 
takes, and the chances are that he will decline 
to help you by pointing out and correcting your 
errors. If he sees that you are in earnest in 
studying his tongue, you may count upon re- 
ceiving his aid. It appeals to his regard for 
his native land and his own self-love to know 
that you wish to speak the same language that 
he speaks. 

If you are in school or college, and there are 

among the students those who speak Spanish, 

Italian, etc., try to associate with them. Many 

times the groundwork of a foreign language is 

in this way easily mastered by a student, who is 

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The New Century Home Book 

surprised to find that he has stumbled into a 
new tongue. Such a method of acquiring a 
new language is often the most pleasant be- 
cause of the friendships which may be formed 
between you and those with whom you have 
associated while a student. 

Beware of patois and the slang of foreign 
languages. They corrupt the speech as they 
corrupt the English tongue. The higher the 
type of the foreign language spoken the better, 
and as a rule the speech of the untutored im- 
migrant is to be avoided. 

Practice in speaking a foreign tongue is 
most essential. The main idea should be not 
only to talk the language, but to think in it. 
Until you think in it you cannot expect to 
speak it fluently. This is the real test of one's 
knowledge of the language. 

Every language learned makes the next 

easier to acquire, while a famous linguist and 

author has declared that a new language opens 

up a new world to him who possesses it. 

Goethe placed association as the most powerful 

influence in linguistics. 

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The New Century Home Book 

In teaching a foreign language to a child a 
text-book is of very little use. The child niust 
learn by hearing and association. If the 
parents speak the tongue they wish their little 
one to acquire, it is a wise plan to teach it sim- 
ultaneously with the child's English lessons. 
Before the little one is old enough to read it 
can be taught the foreign equivalent for each 
English word it learns. With proper care and 
patience on the part of the parents, the child 
thus learns the foreign tongue without a 
thought of study, and will converse in it as 
readily as in his native language. 

The danger to be guarded against in this 
method of teaching a child is that he will fall 
into the habit of using both languages in 
ordinary speech. This should never be per- 
mitted. It will invariably spoil both his Eng- 
lish and his acquired tongue. Let him speak 

one or the other — never both together. 

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travel at Ibome ant) Bbroab 

I T is a far cry from the stagecoach and the 
sailing vessel of the heginning of the nine- 
teenth century to the flying railroad trains and 
the great express steamships of the beginning 
of the twentieth century. One hundred years 
ago a journey or a voyage of a hundred miles 
was a serious undertaking. Now a trip across 
the continent or the ocean is a matter of almost 
as little consequence as a visit to one's neighbor. 
The Old World and the New World are less 
than six days apart;, and you can go from Maine 
to California in five days or even less. 

Americans are known the world over as a 
nation of travelers, and with their constantly 
increasing demands have come constant im- 
provements in methods and means of trans- 
portation, until to-day you can almost literally 
enjoy all the comforts of home in traveling on 
land or sea. Railroad trains have become lux- 
urious hotels on wheels, with dining rooms, 

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libraries, drawing-rooms, writing rooms, bath- 
rooms, and even barber shops, while corps of 
well-trained servants serve you as you are 
whirled across the continent at fifty miles an 
hour or even greater speed. Lake, river, and 
ocean steamships have become great floating 
palaces in which you find every convenience 
and luxury of the modern hotel, while you are 
carried to your destination at the rate of four 
hundred or five hundred miles a day. 

But while modern traveling by rail or boat 
has reached this remarkable degree of perfec- 
tion in comfort and convenience, it still has, in 
the nature of things, numerous drawbacks. 
These may be largely overcome and lessened 
by a little care and forethought on the part of 
the traveler. 

In traveling by rail at home or abroad it is 
well to avoid night trains as far as possible. 
If you are traveling for pleasure, this is easily 
arranged, and a little effort will enable busi- 
ness journeys to be planned in a majority of 
cases so as to have little night travel. Ameri- 
can sleeping cars are the best in the world, but 

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The New Century Home Book 

no one will contend that they are as comfortable 
or as pleasant to sleep in as a good room in a 
hotel. A long railway journey is much less 
exhausting if it is broken by restful nights with 
the sleep that few can enjoy in a sleeping car. 

If you are traveling through a part of the 
country that is new to you, much pleasure and 
real value of the trip are lost if you are carried 
over one half of the land in the night, and it 
thus remains as unknown to you as if you had 
never been near it. 

American railroads and steamships are much 
more liberal than those of any other country 
in the matter of carrying free baggage, but, 
outside of the question of economy, the less 
baggage you have to look after in traveling 
the more comfort you will find in the jour- 
ney. Especially is this true of "hand bag- 
gage." Be careful how you load yourself down 
with a lot of satchels, hand bags, boxes, parcels, 
umbrellas, canes, and other things. They will 
be an ever-present nuisance to you from end to 
end of your journey, and utterly spoil the 

pleasure of traveling. 

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On the other hand, your journey will be less 
enjoyable if you do not have enough baggage 
with you. It is the small things that count in 
a traveling trip. Your hand bag should con- 
tain a comb and brush. You will prefer to 
use your own comb to that supplied for all 
in drawing-room or sleeping car. It should 
also have soap and towels and a whisk broom. 
If the journey is to be of much length, a pair 
of slippers will be very restful for the feet, and 
you will rarely see an experienced traveler 
wearing brand-new shoes on his journey. 

In your hand bag, also, should be a few 
staple remedies for common diseases. All that 
are necessary can be obtained in the form of 
tablets, which can be carried without incon- 
venience. Let your traveling bag be large 
enough to hold all these things, and shun extra 
parcels. 

If you are a woman and must travel alone, 
this caution about too much hand baggage ap- 
plies with special force. If you must spend the 
night in a sleeping car, your traveling bag 

should be roomy enough to hold a wrapper of 

299 



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material suitable to the season to be worn while 
in your berth. 

Carry in your purse only such money as you 
are likely to need during the day, making al- 
ways a liberal allowance. The rest of your 
money should be carried in a strong pocket or 
pouch well fastened to a belt and worn under 
the dress. 

If you find it necessary to stay at a hotel at 
your journey's end, go by the woman's entrance 
to the parlor and send the hall boy for the clerk. 
Give him your card, or your name and address, 
so that he can register for you, and have a clear 
understanding with him as to the room you are 
to have and what it is to cost. He will then 
send you the key of the room and the porter to 
carry your bag and show you to the room. 

If your visit is to a city with which you are 
unacquainted, you will find the services of a 
chaperone most desirable for shopping or sight- 
seeing trips. All first-class hotels furnish 
chaperones who will take you anywhere and 
everywhere in the city, and whose charges for 

the service are moderate. 

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The New Century Home Book 

If you do not care to stay at a hotel, but de- 
sire to find a lodging or boarding place, ask for 
the headquarters of the Young Women's Chris- 
tian Association, and application there will 
rarely fail to put you on the track of what you 
want. 

If you are going abroad, your traveling ar- 
rangements must be quite different from those 
you make for travel at home. Your first 
thought, whether man or woman, is likely to be 
the outfit you will need to take with you. Of 
this you must be largely your own judge, but 
if you are not accustomed to ocean or European 
travel, you will do well to take the advice of 
those who have been abroad. 

Begin your preparations with the idea from 
the start of taking with you as little baggage as 
possible, and never lose sight of that purpose. 
There are several reasons for this advice. Ex- 
pense and trouble of transportation are the 
chief. European railways and steamships do 
not carry baggage free, except in very limited 
quantities. The maximum limit for one per- 
son is thirty pounds. The American system of 

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The New Century Home Book 

checking baggage does not prevail in Europe, 
and you must look after your own trunks, or 
fee some one to do it for you. Even in the 
latter case you must identify your own bag- 
gage. Then there is the annoyance of customs 
examinations at the border of each country you 
visit, only such personal effects as are in actual 
use being, as a rule, nondutiable. Still another 
reason is the small need of an extensive ward- 
robe while traveling on land or on shipboard, 
and the desirability and pleasure most persons 
feel in outfitting in Europe. 

For the ocean voyage you should provide 
yourself with a steamer trunk for the state- 
room and a folding chair for the deck. Both 
should be plainly marked with your name and 
"U. S. A." Some of the ocean lines furnish 
the folding chairs. You should have a large 
warm rug, coat or cloak of winter weight, warm 
outer clothing, and heavy underclothing. 

For a woman a golf cape, with a cowl, is very 

desirable, together with a cap that need not be 

removed when reclining in a steamer chair, 

warm gloves, and a down pillow with a cover of 

302 



The New Century Home Book 

washable material made so that it can be re- 
moved and cleaned when necessary. 

These steamer conveniences may be packed 
in the steamer trunk and left stored with the 
steamship company on the other side until the 
return voyage, if desired. 

For the rest of the trip abroad the clothing 
should be suited to the country you are to visit. 
There are as great extremes in temperature in 
Europe as in our own country. Temperature 
also varies greatly on the ocean, and one must 
be prepared for severe cold in midocean, even 
in midsummer, in crossing from the United 
States to England, France, Holland, or Ger- 
many. 

After going on board the steamer and leav- 
ing your baggage in your stateroom, look up 
the saloon head steward and secure the best ob- 
tainable seat at the dining table. There is gen- 
erally some rivalry for the seats near the head 
of each table. A judicious tip will sometimes 
accomplish much on shipboard as well as on 
shore. 

The deck steward is another whose good will 

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The New Century Home Book 

adds much to the comfort of the voyage. As 
a rule, tips are not given until the end of the 
voyage, but the custom varies on different 
ships. Do not give indiscriminate tips. Fee 
those who have waited upon you well, and no 
others. 

Tell your friends not to fill your stateroom 
with flowers when you start on a foreign trip. 
By the second day of the voyage the flowers are 
fit only to be thrown overboard, and if seasick- 
ness overtakes you sooner, the flowers must go 
the sooner. 

Passports are not needed in traveling through 
the British Isles, but if your trip is to extend 
over much of Europe, it is a wise precaution 
to carry the passport. In several countries you 
will find it a necessity. You can obtain a pass- 
port by sending directly to the Secretary of 
State in Washington, or through a custom- 
house broker in your sailing port. 

If you have trunks with you and are travel- 
ing rapidly from one point to another, it is ad- 
visable to ship the trunks from one chief point 

to another and rely upon hand baggage for the 

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The New Centtiry Home Book 

intermediate places. Take only such baggage 
as can be easily handled and placed in a cab. 

!N'early all steamship lines and tourist agen- 
cies issue booklets giving hints and directions 
concerning cabs, porters, tips, etc., in various 
countries. These give the customs of the coun- 
tries, and you should consult them. 

Remember that on shipboard and in travel- 
ing you can make one dress do the duty of sev- 
eral at home. You are in different places from 
day to day, you are unknown to all you meet, 
and you need have no fear of criticism or 
gossip. 

Where to go in Europe is a question each 
traveler must settle for himself. The number 
of trips that may be planned in advance is abso- 
lutely unlimited. You will know in a general 
way what you most wish to see abroad. Tell 
this to the nearest representative of any one of 
the principal tourist agencies, and he will 
quickly arrange a tour for you that will best 
meet your wishes and the limitations of time 
and expense you may find necessary. 

If it is your first trip abroad, and you have 
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The New Century Home Book 

with you no one of experience in foreign travel, 
it will be a wise plan to purchase the tickets for 
the principal part or the whole of the journey 
from the agency before leaving. This will give 
you the minimum trouble in traveling, for you 
will know the exact route you are to take from 
place to place, the railroad line, boat, etc., and 
in many cases you can even take with you from 
home the time-tables of the railroads on which 
you are to travel in Europe. 

Travel should be an education as well as a 
pleasure. Indeed, the more you learn in travel 
the greater will be the pleasure. The secret of 
successful travel is to keep your eyes and ears 
open. In observation you will find the greatest 
charm of traveling, either at home or abroad. 

In traveling in foreign countries, especially, 

one should seek to broaden his knowledge. 

Eead something of the history of the country 

you are going to visit. When you arrive there 

learn at first-hand all you can about its system 

of government, both national and municipal. 

Look around you and learn something about 

the geography of the country, its rivers, moun- 

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The New Century Home Book 

tains, and lakes, its physical characteristics, 
and its climate. Study the people as you meet 
them in their homes, on the streets, and in the 
hotels and stores. 

Study the language of the country you are in. 
You will never have a better opportunity. It 
is almost impossible to visit a large city in 
which English is not spoken in the hotels and 
principal shops. This will be a constant 
temptation to you to speak in your own lan- 
guage rather than to learn the foreign. Put 
the temptation behind you, and try to make 
yourself understood in their own tongue by 
the people you meet. 

Read the local papers of the place in which 

you are staying, and thus add much to your 

fund of general information. The more you 

learn about the country the greater will be your 

enjoyment while there, the greater profit you 

will derive, and the more pleasant will be your 

recollections of the trip. 

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Ifarm, IDillage, ant) Cit? Xife 

IT OW to get the most benefit out of life, on 
the farm, in the village, or in the city, 
is an important problem. Upon its right solu- 
tion depends much of the happiness of the in- 
dividual and the family. You will find real 
culture in all three, for the city-bred person, 
with all his advantages, does not possess other 
advantages that are within the grasp of the 
farm-bred and the village-bred. 

Environment has much to do with the edu- 
cation and the disposition of the individual. 
It is your duty to absorb from your environ- 
ment everything that is instructive, pleasant, 
and moral. 

The farm, the village, and the city depend 
upon one another. Not one can be wholly un- 
influenced by the others, and it is when you 
discover the true relations of the three that you 
will appreciate the responsibility of making the 

most that you can out of your environment. 

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The New Century Home Book 

Even if you do not live in a place noted for 
its architecture, its arts, its science, or for its 
general culture, that does not mean that your 
surroundings cannot help you in making your 
life valuable to society. The mere fact that 
your home is in a cultured farming community, 
village, or city does not give you culture, though 
it does enable you to grasp the idea and the 
value of that high condition. 

Life does not consist of educational features 
alone. There is a nature to be developed along 
many lines. If you live on a farm, you are in 
close communion with Nature. The freshness 
of the air, the song of the birds, the beauty of 
the fields, and the woods nodding in the winds 
should fill you with joy and inspiration. 

To enjo}^ farm life, study everything around 
you. Study the soil and its vagaries. Watch 
the growth of the oats, corn, wheat, and other 
grain. Note the differences in the trees. Study 
the cattle. The more you delve into the fea- 
tures of farm life the more you will be aston- 
ished at the profundity of Nature. 

The knowledge that you will acquire in this 

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The New Century Home Book 

way is practical. It is the knowledge that brings 
bread and butter. It means more than veneer 
and polish. Let your guiding rule be to go to 
the bottom of things. If you have this always 
in view and follow it, you will be a power in the 
community and a bulwark of personal strength. 
In the sphere of the farm you will be the 
master. 

Investigation of farming conditions will 
lead you sufficiently into the sciences to grasp 
their fundamental facts. You should enrich 
your hours of rest from labor with good, whole- 
some books. Let them be primarily of the 
kind which will have a bearing upon your occu- 
pation. Take the keenest interest in national, 
State, and county affairs. Cultivate the society 
in your township and county. Do not allow 
yourself to be narrow. 

To escape from narrow-mindedness, keep in 
as close touch with the outside world as possi- 
ble. Careful reading of a good newspaper and 
of one or more of the best magazines will enable 
you to follow in a general way the drift of the 

world's affairs. 

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The New Century Home Book 

The farmer should try to benefit himself 
through travel. If he cannot take long Jour- 
neys, let him take short ones. He will see what 
others are doing, and if he is observant, he will 
be able to draw many useful lessons from his 
fellow-men. 

There is a spirit of independence in farm 
life which is helpful to American society. The 
farming class is the sturdy, honest, industrious 
element. It is one of the greatest safeguards 
of the nation. Happy is the man who can 
draw forth from the environment of a farming 
community the many priceless treasures which 
it contains. 

In village life the same fundamental rules 
apply as in a farming community. While the 
two careers have their marked differences, they 
are still intimately connected. The farmer 
and the villager go hand in hand. 

The village-bred person should never allow 

himself to become warped. By that is meant 

provincialism, which shuts out large ideas and 

prevents a normal and steady growth. It too 

often happens that the villager thinks all the 

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world revolves around his little sphere. He is 
too apt to attach undue importance to triviali- 
ties which should be disregarded. 

It is no easy matter to be an enterprising 
and broad-minded villager. The smallness of 
the place often accentuates small troubles. It 
is not at all surprising that everybody knows 
everybody else's business in a village. That 
is to be expected. And while this is the case, 
it really has its charm and its value. You are 
acquainted with your neighbor's needs, with 
his trials, with his successes, with his aspira- 
tions. If you are a true villager, you will re- 
gard him as your friend, take an interest in his 
affairs, and counsel him when he turns to you 
for advice. 

The intimacy which exists in village life 
should be founded on a high plane. The more 
you help your neighbor the more you will help 
yourself. Unless you have this truth in mind 
there is sure to be friction. 

Gossiping is one of the chief dangers in vil- 
lage life. The fact that one knows what every- 
body else is doing is sufficient to start gossip- 

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ing. Gossip is all right in its place, but it 
should be the proper kind of gossip. It should 
be the gossip of a loving and conscientious 
family. Your interest in your neighbor's af- 
fairs should be tempered with discretion. 
Herein lies the opportunity for the develop- 
ment of a fine character. 

With a proper use of your influence you can 
be a power for good among your neighbors. 
Their books can be shared by you, and your 
books may be at their disposal. Their ideas 
and your ideas should be exchanged with frank- 
ness, but with a due regard for the feelings. 

Avoid talking all the time of your own little 
village. Lead your neighbors into other fields 
of conversation. Tell them what you have seen 
elsewhere, and induce them to tell you what 
they have seen. In this way the community 
will be benefited, and it will be less apt to be- 
come a gossiping village, with petty quarrels 
and spites. Culture will find its way in. Your 
homes will show the artistic finish you have 
observed in larger places. You will want to 

have as many advantages of the city life as pos- 

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sible without surrendering the peaceful charm 
of the village. 

Never affect a "city style/' which is unbe- 
coming in a village. The refined urban resi- 
dent will only be amused at it, and your neigh- 
bors will justly remark that you are trying to 
be something different from what you are. Do 
not be like the ostrich, which buries its head 
in the sand and imagines that it has hidden 
itself. Above all things, be what you are — a 
villager — and all persons will realize that you 
arc a genuine and wholesome character in the 
national life. 

Do not become drowsy, even if your village 
has that tendency. Take life as a field for 
activity. Do not, however, dron ilidc repose- 
fulness which most city dwellers do not possess, 
but which they ardently wish they did possess. 
It is one of your rare good fortunes to have it, 
and you should not lose the jewel. 

This reposeful spirit is, unfortunately, too 

lacking in a city. The keen competition of 

city life causes overexertion and a tendency to 

work too hard. The nerves become weary, and 

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the body becomes weak. One of the worst dan- 
gers which beset city life is this ceaseless nerv- 
ousness. It is well, therefore, for one who 
lives in a city to be regular in eating and 
sleeping and in obtaining diversion. Too 
many men have so strained their nerves, or, as 
the physicians say, overdeveloped their nerv- 
ous system, that it is difficult for them to sleep 
soundly. Many city workers find it a severe 
task to keep still and to have that fine equipoise 
and balance which are so beneficial to brain 
and nerves. 

You have doubtless known men who are un- 
able to enjoy the comforts of their affluence 
simply because they have overworked them- 
selves in the accumulation of their wealth. 
They are fidgety and irritable, nervous and 
complaining, though possessing many admi- 
rable traits of character. It is one of the 
lamentable features of city life that the keen 
competition is allowed to destroy the health of 
the most intelligent and the most benevolent 
of citizens. 

In business there is much to be learned from 

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our English cousins. It would probably not 
be a misfortune if there were a trifle more 
phlegm in the make-up of the American char- 
acter. In a new and progressive country, 
however, it is unreasonable to expect the equi- 
librium and the repose of an old nation. Be- 
sides, there are so many elements in the 
national life in America that the strain in a 
large city is necessarily great. 

There is no country in the world having the 
same relentless activity as the one in which we 
live. It is a meritorious and at the same time 
a dangerous feature. The main idea of the 
man in the city should be to properly harness 
the activity. The young horse, if allowed free 
license in work, will strain himself in his will- 
ingness, but a careful and experienced driver 
will not allow him to draw on his reserve 
power all the time. In business always have a 
reserve power, so that in the event of victory 
or defeat you will be able to receive the results 
with that calm equipoise which is such a de- 
lightful sign of a highly civilized character. 

One of the greatest dangers in city life is 

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that, owing to its many diversions, attractions, 
and complexities, one's ambition and purpose 
may be stifled. This is true both of men and 
women. It requires great force of will at 
times to persevere in the purpose which one 
has formed. Take, for instance, the study of 
law. A young man after his admission to the 
bar should train himself to turn his back on 
many pleasures, for the law is a jealous mis- 
tress. In a large city the attractions are so 
numerous and the friends and acquaintances 
are so many that it is easy for a young man 
to neglect his ideals in his profession. Once 
started in the path of neglect and dalliance, 
the fight for a high standing in his profession 
is most surely lost. 

What is true of the young lawyer is true of 
the young physician, the artist, the scientist, 
and of all others. Your purposes should be 
strong and enduring, and you should hold 
them paramount to all other considerations 
which are not inherently of greater importance. 

It is only when this course is followed that 

the best results are obtained. Very often 

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women are hindered in their household duties 
by excessive social demands. If they surrender 
themselves to society, the home suffers; and if 
they are mothers, their children are neglected. 

On the other hand, there should not be too 
much self-denial, for a mistake in that direc- 
tion is apt to lead to a morbid condition of 
mind and body. If you can strike the "golden 
mean" in city life, you will recognize why the 
poet Horace bestowed upon it that elegant ad- 
jective in his famous ode. 

If you wish to develop in a city, be very 
observant. By this is not meant staring. It is 
the power of quickly taking in situations. A 
simple glance sometimes suffices. Try to learn 
all about your city. Visit its institutions, its 
museums, and its schools. Go into the various 
quarters of the city and learn how the different 
classes live. If you are sympathetic, you will be 
enabled to enrich your life with charitable 
work, but true charity in a large city requires 
no little prudence and study. 

It should be the aim of every city person to 

foster not only the great and fundamental prin- 

318 



The New Century Home Book 

ciples of conduct, but also to gain that outward 
polish which renders its possessor additionally 
attractive. Conventionalities have their bene- 
fits, and in a large city they mean much. Mere 
appearances have a value, for the conditions of 
city life necessarily require quick action. Per- 
sons have neither the time nor the opportunity 
to know you as you would wish to be known. 
It is wise to always try to put your "best foot" 
forward. 

Be careful in forming friendships in a city. 
You do not and cannot know the antecedents 
of most persons you meet. It is a wise plan not 
to accept invitations to a stranger's home un- 
less you are reasonably sure that it is such as 
will meet with your ideals of what a home 
should be. While you should be careful about 
your associates and associations, try to meet 
many persons, with a view of studying all types 
and of learning what your fellow-men think 
and do. The "golden mean" is an admirable 
ideal for the city dweller to have always in 
mind. 

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The New Century Home Book 



Hcblevemente of tbe Centuri? 

\170NDERFUL as a dream of enchantment 
have been the achievements of the nine- 
teenth century. It opened with mankind 
divided by great seas on which mariners in 
wooden ships were compelled to trust to the 
caprice of the winds to move them; with trav- 
elers on land going in ox carts, wagons, or, at 
the best, in post chaises; with knowledge 
months and even years old, filtering to the edu- 
cated classes through letters and small essay 
sheets; with housewives spinning and weaving 
cloth for clothing, and knitting yarn for hose; 
with cobblers slowly pegging shoes; with the 
young republic of the western hemisphere giv- 
ing a new example in the science of govern- 
ment, and nations far divided in thought and 
action; with half the world utterly in the dark 
concerning the work of the other half. 

In one hundred years these conditions have 

wholly disappeared. You may travel from one 

320 



The New Century Home Book 

end of the world to another in fast ships of 
iron and steel, that in storm or calm pass stead- 
ily on to their destinations. Railroad trains 
have taken the place of the old stagecoaches. 
Cars and carriages propelled by electricity rush 
through city and country. Great machines 
make cloth and hosiery and shoes. The young 
republic has proved its claim to existence and 
has spread its influence over one hemisphere 
and its power throughout the world. Nations 
have learned to know one another, and the 
places that were dark have come within the 
realms of light. 

Standing out from all achievements and 
making the wondrous progress of the century 
possible is the development of the powers of 
nature and their application to mechanics. 
Steam, which has opened up new realms for 
mankind, has found an efficient and most 
powerful ally in electricity, and as the possi- 
bilities of this power increase it is finding new 
rivals in air and water to relieve man of the 
work of his hands. 

Development of steam power has given us 
(21) 321 



The New Century Home Book 

railroad trains that cross the continent of 
America in a few hours more than four days, 
and steel ships that cross the Atlantic Ocean in 
less than six days and the Pacific in less than 
three weeks. Eailway lines cross and recross 
the continent of America. At the opening of 
the new century a railway line is being ex- 
tended from the coast of Spain on the west to 
the eastern coast of Siberia. Another line is 
being built to connect Cairo in Egypt with 
Cape Town through the darkest regions of Afri- 
ca. Great lines are extended through India 
and are intended to reach China. 

The beginning of the twentieth century sees 
442,200 miles of railways in the world, repre- 
senting an investment of $35,520,000,000, and 
the United States leading all other nations 
with her 190,000 miles of roads — more than 
the mileage of the whole of Europe. Steamship 
lines, representing billions more in invest- 
ments, connect every port of importance in the 
world. Billions upon billions more are in- 
vested in the countless factories of the world, 

where steam machinery is doing the work of 

322 



The New Century Home Book 

millions of hands and carrying into the homes 
of the poor luxuries undreamed of a century 
ago. 

Steam had full sway at the beginning of the 
century, but electricity has surpassed it at the 
end with its marvelous achievements. From 
San Francisco on the west to Manila and 
Yokohama on the east, from St. Petersburg to 
the southernmost point of Africa, stretch lines 
upon lines of wires and cables which constantly 
pulsate with the affairs of the world and bring 
the government at Washington in immediate 
touch with its representatives in the farthest 
capitals. 

England has a system of cable communica- 
tion that reaches each one of her separate col- 
onies, running the breadth of Canada, and car- 
ried to the Bermudas, to Jamaica, to Gibraltar, 
Malta, Aden, down the West Coast of Africa 
or across to the India Ocean, to India, and by 
Sumatra to Australia or to Hongkong. Nine 
cables in which Americans have had the chief 
interest stretch across the Atlantic. Two are 

about to be laid across the Pacific. South 

323 



The New Century Home Book 

America and Africa and Asia have their shores 
lined with the wires that compose the nerves of 
the world. One great American telegraph com- 
pany alone operates 904,633 miles of wires. 

Growing out of this system of sending mes- 
sages by wire has come the achievement of 
transmitting the voice by wire. The business 
man in Boston who wishes to give instructions 
to his representative in Chicago may talk with 
him from a booth in his own office, or without 
leaving his own desk. 

Vast volumes of business are transacted by 
the telephone. In the United States alone al- 
most 1,500,000,000 messages are sent by tele- 
phone in a year, and the use of the system is 
steadily increasing. The United States has 
almost 500,000 telephone stations. Conti- 
nental Europe has nearly as many, and there 
are about 110,000 stations in England. 

Akin to the telephone, the century has 

brought the phonograph, which takes upon 

rolls of wax the sounds of the human voice or 

of musical instruments and repeats them in 

any part of the world. 

324 



The New Century Home Book 

In further development of the same idea has 
come the kinetoscope, which takes pictures 
many times in a second, so that they can be re- 
produced and show individuals in action, rail- 
way trains in motion, street scenes, and even 
battles in war. 

Rounding out these achievements, the end of 
the century finds inventors and scientists suc- 
cessfully solving the problem of sending by 
wire or cable the handwriting of individuals 
and their pictures, as well as the pictures of 
any scenes one cares to reproduce. Telegraph- 
ing of pictures has already been accomplished, 
and it has been demonstrated that handwriting 
can also be transmitted. 

Not the least important achievement of the 
nineteenth century is the automobile. This is 
essentially the product of the last ten years. Its 
possibilities have not yet been fairly gauged. 
France has led in the development of the auto- 
mobile, making every sort of vehicle, from the 
motor bicycle to the great road engine which 
carries sufficient gasoline fuel to run for four 

hundred miles. French law has carefully safe- 

325 



The New Century Home Book 

guarded the use of the automobile, and the 
French military authorities have shown an ap- 
preciation of its value by requiring each ma- 
chine to be registered, so that it may be requi- 
sitioned for use for military purposes in case of 
war. In England the automobile has already 
made great inroads upon the trucking trade. 
In the United States corporations having more 
than $400,000,000 capital are engaged in the 
manufacture of automobiles, making more 
than two hundred varieties of the machine. 

Electricity, gasoline, and steam are princi- 
pally used to propel these vehicles, although 
carbonic acid gas, compressed air, and alcohol 
have been found practicable. Electric vehicles 
are most widely used, although the great stor- 
age batteries necessary to run them for twenty 
or thirty miles make their construction heavy 
and their cost greater than machines of other 
types. An electric phaeton will weigh two 
thousand pounds, the storage battery weighing 
nine hundred pounds. The cost of such vehi- 
cles ranges from $750 to $4,000. The batteries 

can be charged at any electric power house. A 

326 



The New Century Home Book 

gasoline tricycle can be purchased for $350, 
and a good family carriage for $1,000. The 
latter vehicle can be run twenty-five miles a 
day throughout the year at a cost of about 
$1,300 for five years. Steam power has thus 
far been found the best for heavy automobile 
trucks and fire engines. 

Practical telegraphy without wires is another 
heritage of the new century from the old. Wil- 
liam Marconi, an Italian inventor, perfected a 
system in advance of Americans and others who 
had been experimenting with the same object 
in view, and early in 1898 showed at a regatta 
in British waters that by releasing an electric 
impulse from a pole carried on a ship's mast 
he could send messages through the air that 
would be caught by a receiver seventy-five miles 
away and transmitted by wire to a receiving 
station. Further tests were made on British 
warships, when messages were sent eighty miles 
without a wire. In the international yacht 
races off New York harbor in 1899 descrip- 
tions of the contests were sent by Marconi 

from a steamer to a newspaper in New York. 

327 



The New Century Home Book 

In sending wireless telegraph messages one 
knob of an induction coil is connected with the 
earth and another with a wire reaching to the 
top of a pole erected to a considerable height 
to overcome the curvature of the earth. Every 
electrical impulse given by the key of the send- 
ing apparatus goes through the wire on the 
pole and out into space through which it is 
carried by the oscillations of ether with the 
speed of light. It is caught on a pole which 
has a similar wire. Marconi and other investi- 
gators assert that it is possible to overcome the 
curvature of the earth otherwise than by the 
erection of poles, and that the electrical impulse 
can be controlled and directed. 

Out of the control of electricity has come the 

ability to obtain degrees of heat never before 

thought possible. Great electric blast furnaces 

have been built, run by the harnessed water 

power of Niagara Falls, and in these furnaces 

a heat of three thousand degrees Fahrenheit is 

constantly attained. Even the work of Nature 

has been done in these fierce furnaces, and 

under the great heat coke and clay have been 

328 



The New Century Home Book 

made to combine to produce a crystal that is 
almost a diamond — an approach to a realiza- 
tion of the dreams of the ancient alchemists 
who sought to make gold out of baser materials. 

Another source of power brought into use in 
the closing years of the century is liquid air, 
which promises to be developed into a serious 
rival of steam and electricity. Through the 
experiments of Charles E. Tripler, an Ameri- 
can, air has been drawn through a series of 
pipes and its heat extracted until it has reached 
a temperature of three hundred and twelve de- 
grees below zero, when it turns into a liquid. 
So cold is this liquid air that if it is put on a 
block of ice the heat of the ice will turn the air 
into steam. This steam can be used as power. 
Tripler has used it to produce more of the 
liquid air, thus suggesting an approach to the 
idea of perpetual motion. 

The feasibility of navigation in the air and 

under water has been proved during the closing 

years of the nineteenth century. The United 

States government has a submarine torpedo 

boat, the invention of J. P. Holland, which has 

529 



The New Century Home Book 

demonstrated its capacity to run several miles 
under water. Electricity and a store of com- 
pressed air furnish the power for the boat 
and the supply of oxygen necessary for the 
crew. 

The Holland boat carries torpedoes with 
proper firing apparatus, and in practice ma- 
neuvers with ships of the navy has approached 
within striking distance of cruisers and battle- 
ships without being detected under the great 
search lights of the war vessels. The French 
navy has also experimented with submarine 
boats, and has obtained even more satisfactory 
results than the American navy. 

Professor S. P. Langley, of the Smithsonian 
Institution, in Washington, has been the chief 
American experimenter in the problem of aerial 
navigation. He has proved the ability of a 
mechanical contrivance of his construction, 
built with wings, to maintain itself in the air 
and to be directed in its flight. French inven- 
tors have directed balloons by mechanical de- 
vices. Count von Zeppelin has made successful 

trials of an immense airship at Friedrichshafen, 

330 



The New Century Home Book 

on Lake Constance. He has traveled several 
miles at high attitudes, steering the ship in any 
desired direction both with and against the 
wind. His machine is a dirigible balloon. The 
King of Wurttemburg has taken great interest 
in von Zeppelin's experiments. With such 
demonstrations of practicability, it seems a 
safe assertion that one of the early triumphs of 
the twentieth century will be the successful 
navigation of the air. 

One of the most important achievements in 
the world of medicine and surgery which marks 
the old century is the discovery of the Eoentgen 
or X rays, by which the bones of the body can 
be seen and photographed through flesh and 
clothing, and fractures, wounds, bullets, or 
other foreign substances can be instantly and 
accurately located for the guidance of the 
physician or surgeon. 

Brain surgery has also been developed in the 

field of medicine. Surgeons are now able to 

explore the cerebral chambers, considered in 

previous centuries sacred from the knife, and 

to remove the causes of mental troubles. Every 

331 



The New Century Home Bcx)k 

organ of the body has yielded to the advance in 
surgical science. It has been found possible to 
remove the stomach of a human being without 
sacrificing his life. 

Countless other achievements of the nine- 
teenth century have given tremendous impetus 
to the advancement of the human race. One 
cannot measure what has been done for the 
world by the invention of the sewing machine; 
the introduction of gas and electric lighting; 
the use of anaesthetics in surgery and of anti- 
septics to guard against blood poisoning; the 
making of friction matches; the invention of 
photography; and the application of the spec- 
trum analysis, which extends our knowledge of 
the universe and enables us to ascertain the 
relative heat and chemical constitutions of the 
stars, and to measure the motion of stellar 
bodies. 

Commensurate with the advancement in 

science and mechanics has been the progress in 

the field of world-politics. From the example 

of the republic of the United States has sprung 

an idea of liberty that has extended the repub- 

332 



The New Century Home Book 

lican system over j)ractically the whole of 
South America, and firmly planted the republi- 
can idea on the continent of Europe. Two re- 
publics were established in South Africa dur- 
ing the century, but in the century's last year 
they were defeated in war with Great Britain 
and were annexed to her empire. 

In accord with the spread of the principles 
of liberty were the freeing of the slaves in 
America and the crushing of the African slave 
trade by Great Britain and the freeing of the 
serfs by Kussia. 

The opening of Africa and its partition 
among the powers of Europe, with the spread- 
ing of the attributes of civilization through its 
darkest regions, are surpassed in importance 
only by the opening of Japan and China to 
trade and commerce, and their acquiescence in 
the efforts of the West to carry enlightenment 
and Christianity to their peoples. 

Between nations has come a better under- 
standing. European powers have found it pos- 
sible to act in concert upon many troublesome 
questions that earlier in the century would have 

ooo 



The New Century Home Book 

been certain to end in destructive wars. The 
civilized powers of the globe have acted to- 
gether. Arbitration has been found an effective 
means of settling international disputes which 
otherwise would have been the cause of war. 
Notably was this the case in the dispute between 
Great Britain and Venezuela over the bound- 
ary of British Guiana. Armaments of the na- 
tions have increased enormously, together with 
their standing armies and great ships of war, 
and new explosives and powerful artillery, yet 
through the Geneva and Brussels agreements 
the horrors of war have been lessened and the 
possibility of conflict made more and more 
remote. 

Americans may well be proud of the fact that 
their government has been the chief leader in 
the promotion of international arbitration. 

With the record of the nineteenth century 

before him, who shall dare to set a limit in 

prophecy to the achievements and progress of 

the world in the century to come ? 

334 



The New Century Home Book 



IRational (Browtb in tbe Ccnturi? 

JWl ARVELOUS has been the growth of the 
United States in the nineteenth century. 
In territorial expansion, increase of population, 
extension of commerce, accumulation of wealth, 
and all that goes to make a great nation its 
record is phenomenal. 

With only 825,000 square miles of territory 
at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the 
United States enters the twentieth century 
with 3,692,125 square miles. This is more 
than the area of the whole of Europe. Besides 
this, the so-called colonies or new possessions 
include 153,894 square miles. This gives the 
vast total of 3,846,019 square miles as the area 
of the United States in 1900, an increase of 
more than 3,000,000 square miles in one hun- 
dred years. 

In a single State of the United States — 

Texas — England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, 

Italy, and Portugal could be placed, and there 

335 



The New Century Home Book 

would still be room to spare. The entire popu- 
lation of the world could be accommodated in 
Texas, and each man and woman would have 
nearly four times as much living space as is 
enjoyed by a resident of New York city. 

One hundred years ago the population of the 
United States was 5,300,000. To-day it is 76,- 
300,000. A century ago nearly every European 
country exceeded the United States in popula- 
tion. Spain had twice as many inhabitants, 
and France five times as many. The twentietli 
century finds Eussia the only European coun- 
try with as great a population as the United 
States. France and Great Britain together 
have fewer inhabitants. Germany has only two 
thirds as many. 

The exact population of the new posses- 
sions of the United States is unknown. It 
is at least 10,000,000. Thus the American 
government extends its sway over 80,300,000 
persons. 

At the opening of the nineteenth century the 

United States included sixteen States and the 

District of Columbia. The States were the 

336 



The New Century Home Book 

original thirteen States of Delaware, Pennsyl- 
vania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Mas- 
sachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New 
Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Caro- 
lina, and Rhode Island, which ratified the Con- 
stitution in the order named in 1787-1790; 
Vermont, admitted into the Union in 1791 ; 
Kentucky, admitted in 1792; and Tennessee, 
admitted in 1796. The District of Columbia 
was organized in 1790. 

Ohio was the first State admitted into the 
Union in the nineteenth century. It came in 
in 1803. Then came the rest of the present 
States of the Union in this order, with the 
years of their admission : 

Louisiana, 1812; Indiana, 1816; Mississippi, 
1817; Illinois, 1818; Alabama, 1819; Maine, 
1820; Missouri, 1821; Arkansas, 1836; Michi- 
gan, 1837; Florida, 1845; Texas, 1845; Iowa, 
1846; Wisconsin, 1848; California, 1850; 
Minnesota, 1858 ; Oregon, 1859 ; Kansas, 1861 ; 
West Virginia, 1863; Nevada, 1864; Nebraska, 
1867; Colorado, 1876; North Dakota, 1889; 

South Dakota, 1889; Montana, 1889; Wash- 
(22) 337 



The New Century Home Book 

ington, 1889; Idaho, 1890; Wyoming, 1890; 
Utah, 1896. 

Of the Territories, New Mexico was organ- 
ized in 1850; Arizona, in 1863; Indian Terri- 
tory, in 1834; District of Columbia, in 1790; 
Alaska, in 1868; Oklahoma, in 1890; and 
Hawaii, in 1900. 

One hundred j^ears ago the territory of the 
United States comprised only that part of its 
present area lying east of the Mississippi River, 
less the present State of Florida. This terri- 
tory all belonged to the thirteen original States 
when the Union was formed. Between 1784 
and 1803 the original States ceded to the gen- 
eral government the territory out of which grew 
the great States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Michigan, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Tennessee, 
Mississippi, and Alabama. 

By far the most important single addition to 
the territory of the United States in the nine- 
teenth century was the great Louisiana pur- 
chase in 1803. This vast area extended on the 
north from the Mississippi River to the Pacific 

Ocean, and in the east it reached from the 

338 



The New Century Home Book 

British possessions to the Gulf of Mexico. 
Spain had ceded this great domain to France in 
1800, and Napoleon prepared to send an army 
to "New Orleans to uphold his authority. The 
United States entered a vigorous protest to the 
presence of a French army in America, and 
Napoleon finally authorized the sale of the ter- 
ritory, all then called Louisiana, to the United 
States. The price paid to France was $11,250,- 
000. In addition the United States assumed 
the payment of $3,750,000 debts owed by 
France to American citizens, so that the cost 
of the Louisiana purchase to the government 
was $15,000,000. 

Out of the territory thus acquired from 
France have been carved the States of Louis- 
iana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, 
North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kan- 
sas, part of Colorado, part of Wyoming, Mon- 
tana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, and the 
Indian Territory. More than one million 
square miles of territory thus became a part of 
the United States. 

The next territorial expansion of the Unite(i 

339 



The New Century Home Book 

Stales was in 1819, when Spain relinquished 
its title to Florida. Under the terms of the 
treaty the United States paid $5,000,000 to 
American citizens to settle their claims against 
Spain, and gave up its claim to the territory 
of Texas, possession of which had been claimed 
by both Spain and the United States since the 
liOuisiana purchase. 

War followed the next acquisition of terri- 
tory. Texas had become an independent re- 
public in 1835, after its people — largely Ameri- 
can settlers — had defeated and driven out the 
Mexican army. Its independence was recog- 
nized by the United States, England, France, 
and Belgium. A treaty of annexation was 
agreed to by the United States and Texas in 
1845, and when Texas was formally annexed 
it was invaded by Mexico, which had never 
recognized its independence, and the two years' 
war between the United States and Mexico was 
the result. 

This Mexican War resulted in a further ad- 
dition to the territory of the United States. 

The treaty of peace of 1848 provided for the 

340 



The New Century Home Book 

cession to the United States of the whole of 
New Mexico and Upper California. 

Four years later there was a dispute between 
the United States and Mexico as to the bound- 
ary between New Mexico and Mexico, and the 
latter government tried to sieze the disputed 
territory. War was finally avoided by the 
United States buying the land in dispute from 
Mexico. This was known as the Gadsden pur- 
chase. 

Out of tlie territory acquired from Mexico 
have been erected the States of California, 
Nevada, Utah, and part of Colorado, and the 
Territory of Arizona and part of New Mexico. 

Alaska was the first territory acquired by the 
American government outside of the United 
States proper. It was purchased from Russia 
in 1867, and organized as a Territory the fol- 
lowing year. The purchase price of Alaska was 
$7,200,000 in gold. The exact boundary lines 
of the Territory have not yet been definitely 
established, and its exact area is, therefore, not 
yet known. The government authorities now 

give the area as 599,446 square miles. It was 

341 



The New Century Home Book 

supposed when the purchase was made that 
Alaska contained about 550,000 or 560,000 
square miles. The discovery of rich gold fields 
both in the interior and on the coast has made 
Alaska of vastly more importance to the United 
States at the beginning of the twentieth cen- 
tury than ever before, and none can say what 
vast stores of mineral wealth may be revealed, 
as the Territory is opened up by adventurous 
explorers. 

In the closing years of the century the 
United States for the first time extended its 
rule to territory beyond the continent. The 
monarchy in Hawaii was overthrown by a re- 
volt of the people in January, 1803, and a 
republic was established, to which the United 
States gave prompt recognition. The leaders 
in the new republic were eager for annexation 
to the United States, and in 1898 a measure for 
that purpose was passed by the American Con- 
gress, the Hawaiian Legislature having already 
voted for annexation. 

The Hawaiian Islands were formally an- 

nexed by the United States in 1898, the Ameri- 

342 



The New Century Home Book 

can flag being raised in Honolulu on August 
12 of that year with due ceremonies. The 
islands were organized as a Territory of the 
United States in 1900. 

By the annexation of Hawaii the United 
States gained about 6,700 square miles in area, 
with a population of about 109,000. The 
Hawaiian Islands lie in the middle of the 
. Pacific Ocean between latitude 18 deg. 50 min. 
and 22 deg. 50 min.. North, and longitude 154 
deg. 50 min. and 161 deg. 40 min.. West. 
There are twelve islands in the group, but four 
of these are merely uninhabited rocky islets. 
The largest of the islands is Hawaii. The other 
inhabited islands are Maui, Oahu, Kaui, 
Molokai, Lauai, Niihau, and Kahoolaui. On 
Maui is Mount Haleakala, the largest volcano 
crater in the world, being about thirty miles in 
circumference and from two thousand to three 
thousand feet deep. It is ten thousand feet 
above the level of the sea. Honolulu, capital 
of the Territory, is on Oahu Island. 

By far the greatest accession of territory to 

the United States, with the exception of the 

343 



The New Century Home Book 

Louisiana purchase and the purchase of Alaska, 
came to the nation as a result of the war be- 
tween the United States and Spain over Cuba 
in 1898. By the terms of the treaty of peace 
which concluded that war, and which was 
signed on December 10, 1898, the United 
States came into possession of the great Philip- 
pine Archipelago and Guam in the Pacific, and 
Porto Rico in the West Indies. These islands 
added to the actual land area of the United 
Stales about 146,650 square miles, with a pop- 
ulation not definitely known, but estimated at 
about 10,000,000. 

How many islands are in the Philippines no 
one knows. The most careful estimate is that 
there are approximately two thousand, many 
being mere islets. The actual land area of the 
Philippines is estimated at 143,000 square 
miles. The archipelago is so imperfectly known 
that the best authorities differ as to its exact 
geographical location. According to the En- 
cyclopaedia Britannica, it lies between latitude 
4 deg. 40 min. to 20 deg.. North, and longitude 

116 deg. 40 min. to 126 deg. 30 min.. East. 

344 



The New Century Home Book 

Spain claimed possession of the Philippine 
Islands for more than three hundred years, but 
some of the islands have never been fully ex- 
plored, and several of the native tribes were 
never really under Spain's control. 

The largest island of the archipelago is 
Luzon, on which is situated Manila, the capital 
of the group, which was founded by the Span- 
ish in 1581. The best known of the other 
islands are Mindanao, Mindoro, Panay, Negros, 
Zebu, Samar, and Leyte. A group of the 
Philippine Islands lying near Borneo is known 
as the Sulu Archipelago, and while it was 
nominally under Spanish rule, its real ruler 
was a native chief known as the sultan of Sulu. 
The United States has continued the sultan at 
the head of the group, under his acknowledg- 
ment of American sovereignty. 

Under the peace treaty by which the Philip- 
pines were acquired the United States paid 
Spain $20,000,000. 

In the same treaty of peace which gave the 

Philippines to this country Spain ceded to the 

United States the island of Porto Rico, one of 

345 



The New Century Home Book 

the most important of the West Indies. Porto 
Kico is about one hundred miles long and forty 
miles in breadth. It adds about 3,600 square 
miles to the American territory, with a popula- 
tion of 957,000. 

During the war with Spain the United States 
took possession of Porto Eico, meeting with 
very little opposition from the natives and 
easily defeating the Spanish forces on the 
island. The American flag was hoisted over 
the island on October 18, 1898, so that the 
United States was occupying Porto Kico when 
Spain gave it up. 

Although the largest island of the Ladrone 
Archipelago, Guam is only about one hundred 
miles in circumference. It lies in latitude 13 
deg., North, and longitude 145 deg., East, and 
is in a line from San Francisco, Cal., to the 
Philippines. It is about 900 miles from 
Manila and 5,200 miles from San Francisco. 

Guam was seized by the United States dur- 
ing the Spanish war, and was formally yielded 
up by Spain in the peace treaty. The Ameri- 
can flag was raised over the island on February 

346 



The New Century Home Book 

1, 1899, and the first American governor 
reached Guam in July of the same year. 

While on the way to seize Guam, Commander 
Taussig, of the United States Navy, acting 
under orders from the government, raised the 
iimerican flag over Wake Island. This is a 
tiny coral islet of only a few acres in extent, 
lying in the track of vessels from the United 
States and Hawaii to China and the Philip- 
pines. It is about 2,000 miles west of Hono- 
lulu and 1,300 miles from Guam, in latitude 
19 deg. 10 min. 54 sec, North, and longitude 
166 deg. 31 min. 30 sec. East. 

Wake Island is only about eight feet above 
the level of the sea, and the waves probably 
wash completely over it in unusually violent 
storms. It has no fresh water, and only a few 
shrubs and bushes. It is, of course, unin- 
habited. 

The latest addition to the territory of the 

United States is the island of Tutuila, one of 

the Samoan group in the South Pacific Ocean. 

By an agreement made in 1889 the United 

States, Great Britain, and Germany undertook 

347 



The New Century Home Book 

a joint protectorate over the Samoan Islands. 
Internal dissensions and frequent outbreaks be- 
tween rival claimants for the kingship kept the 
islands in almost constant unrest, and caused 
more or less friction among the protecting 
powers. 

Late in 1899 an agreement was reached by 
the throe powers, under whicli Great Britain 
witlidrew altogether from Samoa, Germany 
received the islands of Upolo and Savaii, and 
llic United States became possessed of Tutuila. 
This agreement was carried out, and in the 
closing year of the nineteentli century Tutuila 
was added to llic American domain, tlie Ameri- 
can flag being formally raised over the island 
on April 17, 1900. 

Tutuila increased the area of the United 
States only fifty-four square miles and added 
only about 4,000 to the population. Its princi- 
]M\\ value is in its splendid harbor of Pago- 
Pago, in which the entire navy of this country 
could be moored, safe from storms, and the 
entrance to which is so narrow that only two 

vessels can enter at the same time. 

348 



The New Century Home Book 

No other country on earth equals the United 
States in wealth. One hundred years ago the 
nation's wealth was $2,000,000,000. It is now 
more than $100,000,000,000. 

ISTo other country equals the United States 
in manufactures. The amount of capital in- 
vested in manufacturing is about $6,500,000,- 
000. More than 7,000,000 persons are em- 
ployed in American factories. Their earnings 
are about $3,250,000,000 a year. 

The foreign trade — exports and imports — of 
the United States at the opening of the twen- 
tieth century reaches about $2,150,000,000. 

The United States now produces each year 
about 2,000,000,000 bushels of corn, 550,000,- 
000 bushels of wheat, and 790,000,000 bushels 
of oats. The cotton crop is more than 11,000,- 
000 bales of 480 pounds each. One half of the 
world's product of 5,000,000,000 gallons of 
petroleum a year is produced in the United 
States. 

In the production of gold and silver the 

United States occupies a leading place among 

nations. Its gold product exceeds $65,000,000 

349 



The New Century Home Book 

a year, and its silver product is more than 
$70,000,000 a year. The production of copper 
is about 240,000 long tons a year. 

The coal fields of the United States extend 
over 194,000 square miles, and yield about 
200,000,000 tons of 2,240 pounds each. 

There are about 190,000 miles of railroads 
in the United States, not including about 65,- 
000 miles of side tracks and sidings. No other 
country approaches the United States in extent 
of railroad lines. Germany, the nearest to this 
country, has less than 40,000 miles. 

Exclusive of Alaska, the forests of the United 
States cover an estimated area of 699,500,000 
acres. The value of timber cut each year is 
more than $1,000,000,000. 

About 17,000,000 pupils are enrolled in the 

public and private schools and colleges of the 

United States. They are taught by nearly 

420,000 teachers. 

350 



The New Century Home Book 



Zbc ination'6 (Breateet Cit? 

TX EEPING pace with the growth of the most 
remarkable nation in the world's history, 
New York, the metropolis of the western 
hemisphere, has well earned the title of the 
"Imperial Cit}^" A town of less than 5,000 
inhabitants two centuries ago, a city of only 
24,000 residents when the War of the Revolu- 
tion ended, it has reached out and absorbed 
population until the end of the century finds it 
with 3,437,202 inhabitants within its 320 
square miles of territory. 

Even these figures do not do justice to New 
York's greatness, because but for the accident 
of State lines the cities on the New Jersey 
shore of the North Eiver would undoubtedly 
have been absorbed by the greater city and 
would have added almost 500,000 to the city's 
inhabitants. There are, too, many tens of 
thousands who earn the living for their fami- 
lies in the offices and business houses of the 

351 



The New Century Home Book 

city, but who make their homes on the lines of 
the great railways which morning and night 
run fast trains for their benefit. 

Yet, without spreading its authority over all 
its workers, New York is a city of magnificent 
distances, for from the boundary line at Yon- 
kers to the soutliern point of Staten Island is 
thirty-four luilcs, mihI from llowhmd Hook, 
Staten Island, to Hornl INirk, Long Island, is 
almost twenty-five miles. 

Government for such a multitude of inhab- 
itants, whose state varies from abject squalor 
ill rough every possible gradation to fabulous 
wx'alth, is a difficult problem that troubles every 
State Legislature. When Brooklyn, Long 
Island City, Staten Island, and other contigu- 
ous territory were consolidated with old New 
York on January 1, 1898, a borough system, 
designed to safeguard the interests of all the 
former municipalities, was adopted. Manhat- 
tan Island, wifh 1,850,093 population, is the 
dominant one of these divisions, and is known 
as the Borough of Manhattan. The territory 

north of the Harlem River, extending to the 

362 



The New Century Home Book 

northern boundary line of the city, is the Bor- 
ough of the Bronx, and has 200,507 inhabitants. 
Long Island City and the added villages to the 
east, with 152,999 inhabitants, make up the 
Borough of Queens. Brooklyn, with its 1,166,- 
582 inhabitants, is the Borough of Brooklyn. 
Staten Island, having 67,021 inhabitants, 
forms the Borough of Eichmond. 

Each borough has its own president, its bor- 
ough board, its school board, and its deputies 
in the principal executive departments of the 
city. The affairs of the entire municipality, 
however, are controlled by a municipal assem- 
bly of two houses and the mayor and his execu- 
tive appointees. As checks upon the assembly 
are a board of public improvements, having 
power to determine upon and supervise all 
public works, and a board of estimate and ap- 
portionate, which prepares the city's annual 
budget. These boards are composed of heads 
of departments, with the mayor and comptrol- 
ler of the city as members. 

Necessity for rigid supervision and care of 

the expenditures of the public funds is seen in 
(23) 253 



The New Century Home Book 

the fact tliJit the city ollicials are guardians 
of more weallli than is licld in ilie whole State 
of New York oulsiih' llic liinils of tlic city. 
New York city's annual expenditures are 
more than those of any six States in the I'nion 
comhined. 'I'he assessments as specified hy the 
State hoard of e<iualization for 1 !)()() j)hiced 
the value of the taxahle property wilhin the 
city at more Ihan $3,00(),0()(),()()(), and the 
hoard added the declaration that not more than 
oiu' half of llie personal ])roperty of the citizens 
could be levied upon for taxation. Tiie hud<^^et 
for ISIM) was $()4,0()0,()()(), and it was expected 
to reach very nearly $100,0()0,()()0 for the clos- 
ing year of the century. 

The schools of the great city have ahundant 
])rovision under a Statu law which sets aside 
for their maintenance a special tax of four 
mills, to be expended under the direction of tlie 
central board of education. This tax now 
amounts to about $14,000,000. 

Appropriations for the police department 
are now about $12,000,000. Th(> fire depart- 
ment and the street cleaning department cx- 

854 



The New Century Home Book 

pend about $5,000,000 each. For the health 
department, which guards against the adulter- 
ation and sale of poor food and milk as well as 
against disease, about $1,000,000 is provided. 
In these and all other branches of the city gov- 
ernment there is a constantly increasing de- 
mand upon (lie public purse. 

Provision also has to be made for the interest 
and sinking fund for the city's indebtedness, 
which is almost $250,000,000, and has been 
rapidly increasing in recent years. The aver- 
age tax for municipal purposes is more than 
four per cent, a rate which shows that New 
York spends much more money for its govern- 
ment than any city in Kurope. 

There are thirty thousand employees on the 
salary list of the city. Most important of these 
are the judicial odicers. These include thir- 
teen coroners, twelve police magistrates in 
Manhattan and the Bronx, and twelve more in 
the other boroughs; twenty-one civil justices; 
ten judges of Special Sessions; six judges of 
General Sessions; and thirty- four Supreme 

Court judges, from whom are chosen the mem- 

355 



The New Century Home Book 

bers of two ajipellate divisions of tlie Supreme 
Court. 

The greatest department in the city is that 
of the police. It is controlled by a board of 
four commissioners, equally divided in party 
politics, who are appointed by the mayor. 
Under the board's charge are one chief, five 
deputy chiefs, ten inspectors, 127 captains, and 
7,752 policemen. Stringent civil service laws 
are supposed to afford protection to members 
of the police force from discrimination and 
persecution by their superiors, although a sys- 
tem of transferring men from precincts in one 
end of tlie city to those in other distant sec- 
tions has been found valuable as a means of 
discipline. 

To reinforce the authority of the police are 
three brigades of the National Guard, two of 
which, including two batteries of artillery, a 
squadron of cavalry and a signal corps, are in 
the Borough of Manhattan. A battalion of 
naval militia, a fire department having 133 
engine companies and 40 hook and ladder com- 
panies, and large corps of building and health 

356 



The New Century Home Book 

inspectors contribute to the peace and safety 
of the city. 

Great public works are under way or planned 
to aid the growth of the city by making its 
business centers more accessible from the out- 
lying regions beyond the Harlem River, on 
Long Island and Staten Island, and also in 
New Jersey. 

Most important of all the public works in 
progress at the end of the century in the "Im- 
perial City" is the underground railway, which 
is intended to carry passengers from the north- 
ern part of the city to the City Hall in three 
quarters of an hour. The contract for this 
gigantic undertaking is being carried out, and 
the cost is to be $35,000,000, with the provision 
that the road is to be finished in 1903, 

A four-track road is to be looped around City 

Hall Square, with provision for extension to 

the Battery at the southern end of Manhattan 

Island if desired later. From the City Hall 

and Brooklyn Bridge the four-track subway 

will be built to Ninety-sixth Street by way of 

Center Street, Fourth Avenue, Forty-second 

357 



The New Century Home Book 

Street, and Broadway. From Ninety-sixth 
Street a two-track road will be constructed to 
125th Street. There it will cross Manhattan 
Valley on a viaduct and then extend under- 
ground to 190th Street, whence it will be built 
on the surface to Kingsbridge. 

At Xinety-sixth Street two tracks will branch 
off and run underground to Westchester 
Avenue, across the Harlem River, where they 
will run on an elevated structure to Bronx 
Park. Provision has also been made for an 
extension of the subway under the East River 
to Brooklyn. 

This great rapid transit line will include 
almost twenty miles of tunnels which will be 
like a great steel box, supporting the surface 
of the streets by means of steel pillars and 
beams. The tunnels will be only a few feet be- 
low the surface and are to be brightly lighted 
by electricity and fully ventilated. 

The underground roads are designed to add 
to the transit facilities afforded to the Boroughs 
of Manhattan and the Bronx by the present ele- 
vated and electric surface roads. One line of 

358 



The New Century Home Book 

the elevated railroad now extends from the 
Battery to 155th Street — ten miles on the west 
side of the city, making connections with 
suburban lines of the New York Central Eail- 
road. Another line of the elevated railway ex- 
tends on the east side of the city from the Bat- 
tery to 177th Street in the Bronx — more than 
twelve miles. 

Besides the lines mentioned, New York is 
fairly gridironed with cable, electric, trolley, 
and horse-car surface lines, which by a system 
of transfers enable a person to reach any part 
of Manhattan from any other part of the bor- 
ough for one fare of five cents. On certain 
lines transfers are taken from the elevated 
roads, b}^ which for eight cents one can ride 
from the Battery to the northern limits of the 
city. 

The Borough of Brooklyn, which has a com- 
plete transit system of trolley and elevated 
roads, now has an entrance into Manhattan 
Borough by means of the Brooklyn Bridge. 
Over this bridge run the cars of both elevated 

and surface lines. These facilities, however, 

359 



The New Centuryr Home Book 

are far from adequate, and for the benefit of 
the tens of thousands who must depend upon 
the ferries for crossing the river, as well as to 
open up the vacant ground on the outskirts of 
the borough, more bridges are to be built across 
the East River above the present structure. The 
East River Bridge, about a mile above the 
Brooklyn Bridge, is being built. It is to 
be completed by 1907, and its cost will be $12,- 
000,000. It will be 7,200 feet long, and its 
roadway 135 feet above high-water mark, while 
its two steel anchorage towers will be 335 feet 
above the same mark. Tlie bridge will have 
two carriageways, two footwalks, four trolley 
car tracks, and two elevated railroad tracks. 

Between these two bridges a third is to be 
constructed at a cost of $13,000,000. A fourth 
East River bridge is planned to cross at Black- 
wcU's Island to give quick entrance to the 
Borough of Manhattan from the Borough of 
Queens. This bridge is expected to cost about 
$13,000,000. 

Greater than any of these East River bridges 

will be the structure that is to be built over the 

360 



The New Century Home Book 

North Kiver to connect New York with New 
Jersey at Fifty-ninth Street. The contract for 
this bridge has been let. It calls for the com- 
pletion of the work in 1906, and the 'cost is 
placed at $17,000,000. The main span of the 
North River Bridge is to be 2,700 feet in length. 
The bridge will give an entrance into New 
York for the principal trunk railway lines now 
having their termini in Jersey City and on the 
Jersey shore. It will also greatly facilitate 
communication between the city and the sub- 
urban towns of New Jersey so largely popu- 
lated by men and women whose business life 
is spent in New York. 

Another great public work under way in 
New York at the opening of the new century 
is the construction of a driveway and prom- 
enade for fourteen miles along the North Eiver 
and in the Borough of the Bronx, which will 
connect the extensive parks of that borough 
with those of Manhattan and provide a mag- 
nificent runway for bicyclists as well as pleasure 
vehicles. 

This splendid driveway will be an extension 

361 



The New Century Home Book 

of the present Eiverside Drive, which runs 

along the Xorth River from Seventy-second 

Street to and beyond the tomb of General U. S. 

Grant, at 125th Street. By a great steel viaduct, 

constructed above the roofs of dwellings and 

factories, the drive will be carried over the 

Manhattan Valley. Thence it will continue on 

up to the Harlem River, crossing to Van Cort- 

landt Park. From this park the drive will 

turn eastward to Bronx Park, and continue on 

across the borough to the beautiful Pelham 

Bay Park on Long Island Sound, crossing the 

bay on a long steel bridge. Brooklyn Borough 

already has its fine Ocean Parkway, connecting 

Prospect Park with Coney Island and the 

ocean beach. 

Liberal provision for breathing room for the 

residents of the "Imperial City'' has been 

made. There are 6,919 acres of park lands in 

the city, of which 4,057 are in the Bronx, 1,573 

acres in Brooklyn and Queens, and 1,288 acres 

in Manhattan and Richmond. Pelham Bay 

Park alone has 1,756 acres, and Van Cortlandt 

Park comprises 1,132 acres. Central Park, in 

362 



The New Century Home Book 

Manhattan, the most accessible of all, has 843 
acres, and is valued at $90,000,000. In Van 
Cortlandt Park are public golf links, and in 
Central Park are tennis courts and baseball, 
croquet, and cricket grounds open to the peo- 
ple. In Bronx Park zoological and botanical 
gardens are established and constantly being 
extended. 

Another most important public work under 
wa}^ is the erection of a vast public library in- 
tended to rival or surpass the similar institu- 
tions of Boston and Washington. Its site is 
in Bryant Park, between Fifth and Sixth 
Avenues and West Fortieth and West Forty- 
second Streets. The old city reservoir which 
stood for many years on the site has been re- 
moved to make room for the library, for the 
building of which $2,500,000 has been appro- 
priated. When this structure is completed it 
will be stored with the 300,000 volumes now in 
the Astor Library and the 80,000 volumes of 
the Lenox Library, and will be aided by a large 
legacy left by Samuel J. Tilden as the founda- 
tion for the institution. It will prove an im- 

363 



The New Century Home Book 

posing center for the fifty-seven public libraries 
of New York. 

To provide water for the millions in the 
Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx, the city 
has undertaken to build a gigantic system of 
waterworks in addition to the present great 
Croton system. The Croton Reservoir, first 
utilized in 1890 to supply the new Croton 
Aqueduct, is to be greatly enlarged by a dam 
now under construction, so that it will cover 
about 7,000 acres of ground and have a storage 
capacity of 32,000,000,000 gallons of water. 
This will make the city's total storage capacity 
for water 72,000,000,000 gallons. 

The dam will cost $5,500,000. It will be 

1,300 feet long, 100 feet above the bed of the 

Croton River, and the foundation will rest on 

rock 130 feet below the river's bed. Connected 

with this new water system will be the Jerome 

Park Reservoir, which will store 3,000,000,000 

gallons and will cost about the same as the 

big Croton dam— $5,500,000. Even these 

vast waterworks will not long supply the 

needs of the Manhattan and Bronx Boroughs, 

364 



The New Century Home Book 

and the authorities are already at work on the 
problem of increasing the city's water resources 
in the near future. 

With nineteen great railways centering in 
the city; with forty-five ferry lines running 
boats at intervals of from five to fifteen min- 
utes; with ocean steamship lines holding piers 
for many miles of the water front, and with the 
trade of river and sound steamers and ocean 
"tramps," the harbor of New York always pre- 
sents a busy scene. The waters of the city seem 
to have been especially adapted by Nature to ac- 
celerate the marvelous growth of New York. 
The total water frontage of the city is 353 
miles, of which about 100 miles are in the 
Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. Man- 
hattan Island has a frontage of twenty-nine and 
six tenths miles, Brooklyn and Queens have 201 
miles, and Richmond fifty-two miles. In Man- 
hattan alone there are 242J piers, of which the 
city owns 154 whole and twenty-two half piers. 
Practically all of the great ocean steamship 
lines have their piers on the North River side 

of Manhattan. 

365 



The New Century Home Book 

New York's churches form an important 
factor in her activities. There are more than 
a thousand houses of worship in the five bor- 
oughs. In Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the 
Bronx the Roman Catholics have 185 churches; 
the Protestant Episcopalians, 135; Methodists, 
114; Baptists, 94; Presbyterians, 89; Luth- 
erans, 70; Reformed Church in America, 55, 
and Congrcgationalists, 42. Hebrews have 61 
synagogues. 

Grammar school buildings in the Boroughs 
of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx num- 
ber 191; primary schools, 102; high schools, 
8; night schools, 51, and night high schools, 3. 
At the head of the city's school system stand 
the College of the City of New York and the 
Normal College, the former for young men 
and the latter for young women. Graduates of 
the Normal College are eligible for positions 
as teachers in the public schools. The city 
takes the children of the poorest citizen, starts 
them in the kindergarten, carries them up 
through the primary, grammar, and high 

school grades, and then gives them a thorough 

366 



The New Century Home Book 

collegiate education, all without cost to the 
parents. 

Columbia University, the famous King's 
College of ante-Eevolutionary days, rich in 
endowments, occupies its new buildings on 
Morningside Heights, and is one of the chief 
educational institutions of the city. Another 
prominent educational center is the New York 
University, for which new buildings are being 
erected on University Heights, in the Bronx, 
overlooking the Harlem River and the upper 
part of Manhattan. 

Wealth of the city is shown in the condition 
of its banks. Manhattan Borough has twenty- 
six savings institutions, of which the largest is 
the Bowery Bank, with deposits of more than 
$65,000,000. Brooklyn has twenty savings 
banks, one of them — the Brooklyn — having 
$34,000,000 in deposits. Manhattan has 
eighty-five State and national banks, of which 
two — the National City and the Bank of Com- 
merce — have $10,000,000 capital each. Brook- 
lyn has twenty-seven of these banks. 

With this great wealth goes corresponding 

367 



The New Century Home Book 

charity. Public and semipublic charitable in- 
stitutions are scattered throughout the city. 
The municipality supports several county in- 
firmaries, a great orphan asylum, and con- 
tributes with liberal hand to hospitals and other 
institutions in which unfortunates receive quick 
and able attention. Dispensaries are connected 
with most of the large hospitals and medical 
schools in which needy persons can receive 
medical attention free of charge. Persons hurt 
or falling ill in the streets arc carried to hospi- 
tals and nursed back to health without cost if 
they are unable to pay for treatment. Aged 
persons and orphans receive care and support 
in homes established by the citizens. 

The private charities of the city are organ- 
ized into central corporations, of which the 
Protestants have one, the Hebrews another, 
and the Catholics a third, and the work of 
relief is so systematized as to prevent waste 
in one direction and penury in the other. The 
city of Xew York gives annually to charity the 
sum of $4,500,000. This is supplemented by 

a like sum from individual citizens. New 

368 



The New Century Home Book 

York's total charities, therefore, reach the mag- 
nificent figure of $9,000,000 every year. 

Almost $3,000,000 a year is paid in salaries 
of clergymen in the city, and a like amount for 
the maintenance of churches. This sum is 
greater than the total spent for theaters and 
concerts, which is ahout $5,500,000 a year. 
There are eighteen places of amusement in 
Brooklyn Borough and fifty-one in Manhattan 
— figures in marked contrast to the number of 
churches. 

In addition to the private palaces to be found 
in the fashionable districts of Fifth and Madi- 
son Avenues and along the North Kiver front 
of Manhattan, wealth finds many places where 
it can have the luxurious surroundings it 
craves. Of the hundreds of hotels in New 
York more than a score seek to cater only to 
the rich. Perhaps the largest of New York's 
hotels is the Waldorf-Astoria, with its 700 
rooms at $5 and $6 a day each, and numerous 
other rooms and suites at $25 a day and up- 
ward. In this type of the city's great hotels is 

a private theater and concert room, a ball room, 
(24) 369 



The New Century Home Book 

and a roof garden, where concerts are given on 
summer nights. Delmonico's and Sherry's, 
with their public and private dining rooms, 
ball rooms, and banquet halls, are types of the 
city's higher class restaurants. 

Types of anotlicr kind of luxury are the 
Metropolitan and Progress Clubs, which are 
known as "millionaire clubs" because all their 
members are supposed to be possessed of great 
wcaltli. Tlierc arc scores of other prominent 
clubs in the city, and in every department of 
life wealth or poverty is abundantly able to find 
its level and its companionship. 

Feeding tlio multitude in the "Imperial 
City" is an important and interesting problem. 
Accurate figures to cover every item of the 
city's daily bill of fare liave never been com- 
piled, for it is an impossible task. But when 
the food supplies for Manhattan alone are 
taken into account the results are astounding. 
Of eggs alone 80,000,000 are consumed in a 
single year in ^ranhattan Borough. Twenty- 
five thousand bushels of potatoes are eaten 

every day. Of butter 290,000 pounds are con- 

370 



The New Century Home Book 

sumed in a day, and 300,000 pounds of cheese 
in the same time. 

More than 500,000 steers are required to 
furnish the beef eaten in a year. The mutton 
eaten calls for 2,436,000 sheep a year, and 
1,600,000 hogs supply the pork for the same 
period. Into Fulton Market alone are brought 
45,000,000 pounds of fresh fish every year. Of 
fresh green vegetables the consumption is about 
40,000,000 bushels a year. 

These food supplies are handled in several 
large markets, like the Fulton and Washington 
Markets, and by shops which range from the 
"delicatessen stores," of which there are 800 
in Manhattan, to big commission houses which 
never deal in less than carloads of any article. 

"How shall I see New York in haste?" is a 

question often asked by visitors to the city who 

can remain only a day or two, or perhaps a 

week, and must then leave with the prospect of 

not visiting the city again for years, if at all. 

Of course, if you have only a limited time at 

your disposal, you can do nothing more than 

barely look over the surface of New York. You 

371 



The New Century Home Book 

cannot really see into the city's own peculiar 
and characteristic life, for even the oldest of its 
residents have not reached the end of learning 
of its wonders. 

Yet New York offers the best opportunity 
of any great city in the world for a hasty view. 
If you merely come to it on a ferryboat from 
the New Jersey shore and look at the great 
pile of buildings that rear themselves at the 
lower end of Manhattan Island and the rows 
of shipping at the piers and the crowded traffic 
of the bay, it is well worth while. 

If one has only a day to spend in the city, he 

can see much of the surface of its life and 

activities by an intelligent and industrious use 

of his time. Let him take an Amsterdam 

Avenue trolley car from the center of the city 

in the morning and ride up to 112th Street. 

He will then be at Columbia University. He 

should step into the beautiful library of the 

University and see its great dome and its books 

and the bronze signs of the zodiac in the floor 

of the court. 

From the steps of the library one can see far 

372 



The New Century Home Book 

over Harlem to the East Eiver, taking in the 
line of Central Park and noting the wonderful 
growth of the upper residence portion of the 
city. Just in front will be seen the high arch 
and foundations of the great Cathedral of St. 
John the Divine, which the Episcopalians de- 
sign to be the most imposing religious structure 
in the world. Its foundations go down seventy 
feet into the cliff upon which it stands. Near 
the Cathedral is St. Luke's Hospital, one of 
the city's finest institutions of the kind. 

A short walk northward from Columbia 
University will take the visitor to the stately 
tomb of General U. S. Grant, with the trees 
planted beside it in the name of the famous 
Li Hung Chang, China's foremost modern 
statesman. The tomb is on historic ground, 
for it was here that the battle of the Harlem 
was fought, and the Continental militia 
learned that they could drive back the vaunted 
regulars of King George. 

Stepping down the hill from Grant's Tomb, 

let the visitor take another Amsterdam Avenue 

car and ride to 155th Street, on Washington 

373 



The New Century Home Book 

Heights. Leaving the car there, he will see the 
heautiful Trinity Church Cemetery on the left, 
but he will have no time to walk through it. 
Going eastward down 155th Street, he will 
reach the viaduct crossing a part of the plain 
below the Heights and the Harlem River. 

Conspicuous on a high bluff to the north of 
the entrance of the viaduct stands the historic 
old Madame Jumel mansion, the rendezvous of 
almost all the famous men of the republic's 
early days, where Aaron Burr married the 
noted Widow Jumel, and where Washington 
was often a visitor. It is now a private resi- 
dence, but the old mansion is filled with valu- 
able relics of its early days. 

Just at the entrance to the viaduct is the en- 
trance to New York's noted Speedway, a wide 
and level course following the shore of the Har- 
lem River, built for the speeding of horses. 
Looking up the Harlem River from the via- 
duct, one can see High Bridge spanning the 
Harlem from cliff to cliff, and carrying the 
Croton water supply for tlie whole of Manhat- 
tan Island. A short distance above High 

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Bridge the Washington Bridge looms up, wider 
and higher. Still farther northward, and on 
the Bronx side of the river, the dome of the 
University of New York is seen. 

Below and beside the viaduct are the Colum- 
bia Field, the scene of the university games 
and of many collegiate sports, and the Polo 
Ground of the New York Baseball Club. 

Stairways lead down from the viaduct to the 
west side line of the elevated railroad. A ride 
on this road to Eighty-first Street will give the 
visitor a fair idea of the residence part of New 
York. From the Eighty-first Street station a 
short walk leads to the Museum of Natural 
History in Manhattan Square, where a remark- 
able collection of the remains of birds and ani- 
mals may be seen. 

After a hasty glance at the exhibits let the 

visitor walk eastward through Central Park, 

to which there is an entrance near the Museum. 

This will take him to the obelisk known as 

Cleopatra's Needle, and to the Metropolitan 

Museum of Art on the east side of the park, 

in which are exhibited a large collection of 

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The New Century Home Book 

valuable and famous paintings, including Meis- 
sonier's "1807'' and Rosa Bonheur's "Horse 
Fair," works of art, sculpture, china, tapestries, 
and collections of antiques. 

The trip through this building must be hur- 
ried, and therefore unsatisfactory, but the vis- 
itor has still much to see. Let him step from 
the Museum to Fifth Avenue, adjoining the 
park, and take a stage going down town. 
This will give him a trip through the dis- 
trict of the most fashionable residences. At 
Sixty-seventh Street is the home of George 
J. Gould, head of the Gould family. One 
square below is the mansion of John Jacob 
Astor and his mother, Mrs. William Astor. 
Commodore Elbridge T. Gerry's residence 
is at Sixty-first Street. Just below it is the 
Metropolitan Club, and then at Fifty-ninth 
Street the Netherland, Savoy, and Plaza 
Hotels, fronting on the plaza at the Fifth 
Avenue entrance to Central Park. 

On the south side of the plaza, extending 
from Fifty-eighth Street to Fifty-seventh 

Street, is the palace of Mrs. Vanderbilt, widow 

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The New Century Home Book 

of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and her family. 
Across from it, on the southwest corner of Fifth 
xA. venue and Fifty-seventh Street, is the home 
of Harry Payne Whitney, formerly occupied by 
his father, William C. Whitney. Opposite the 
Whitney residence on Fifth Avenue stands the 
elegant mansion of the late Collis P. Hunt- 
ington. 

A few squares farther down on Fifth Avenue 
is the building of the University Club, a feature 
of which are the arms set in its walls of all the 
principal colleges and universities in the coun- 
try. At Fifty-second Street are the large 
double mansions known as the "Vanderbilt 
houses," one being the home of George W. Van- 
derbilt and the other the residence of Mr. and 
Mrs. W. D. Sloane. 

At Fiftieth Street and Fifth Avenue is St. 
Patrick's Cathedral, with the palace of Arch- 
bishop Corrigan, head of the Koman Catholic 
Church in New York, behind it on Madison 
Avenue. At Forty-seventh Street is the town 
house of Miss Helen Miller Gould. A few blocks 

farther down the avenue are Sherry's and Del- 

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The New Century Home Book 

monico's. Then comes the van of the trades- 
men who are year by year pushing the Fifth 
Avenue dwellers farther and farther up town. 
At Thirty-fourth Street is the Waldorf-Astoria 
Hotel and below it the Holland House. Then 
one reaches Madison Square, where the "politi- 
cal hotels" — the Fifth Avenue and Hoffman 
House — are located. 

By this time the visitor will have filled a 
busy morning. Let him leave the stage at 
Madison Square for luncheon in any one of the 
numerous restaurants in the vicinity. After 
luncheon let him take a Broadway car down 
town. This will give him a glimpse of the 
city's chief shopping district, Grace Church at 
Eleventh Street, followed by the wholesale dry 
goods and other business districts, and, far 
down town, at Wall Street, the financial district. 

Leaving the car at Wall Street, Trinity 

Church is on the right and facing the money 

center. A quick trip may be made through its 

churchyard, where the bodies of Alexander 

Hamilton and many other men of note in the 

olden time are buried. A few steps down Wall 

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The New Century Home Book 

Street are the Stock Exchange and the United 
States Sub-Treasur}^, on the steps of which a 
statue of Washington marks the spot where 
the first President took the oath of his high 
office. 

Returning to Broadway, a short walk takes 
the visitor to Bowling Green, where the leaden 
statue of King George stood until it was pulled 
down to be made into bullets for the Ameri- 
cans. On the site of the old British Fort at 
Bowling Green the government is erecting a 
new customhouse, and where Washington es- 
tablished his headquarters after the retreat 
from Long Island a great office building now 
stands. 

A few steps farther lies Battery Park and 
Castle Garden, now a public aquarium, well 
worth a visit if one can spare the time. Here, 
too, is the Barge Office, through which enters 
the vast army of immigrants constantly seek- 
ing homes in America from every other coun- 
try on earth. Here a boat can be taken for a 
trip to the famous Statue of Liberty, whence 

a view may be had of the entire harbor of New 

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The New Century Home Book 

York, with the immigrant station just below 
and Staten Island, Brooklyn, and the Brook- 
lyn Bridge in the distance. 

This will easily fill up the afternoon. In the 
evening the visitor may visitor the teeming 
East Side and find a new phase of the city's 
life. A Third or Fourth Avenue car may be 
taken for a ride through the Bowery to, say, 
Rivington Street. Let the visitor walk east 
through Rivington Street to Norfolk, to Divi- 
sion, and to Chatham Square. Crossing the 
square, let him walk to Park Row and down 
that thoroughfare to Printing House Square, 
where many of the principal newspaper offices 
are located; the City Hall and its park, the 
Post Office building, old St. Paul's Church, 
and the Astor House. He may return up town 
by one of several street-car lines at and near 
the Post Office, or the east or west side elevated 
road, stations of which are within a short walk. 
This evening trip will give the visitor a review 
of the polyglot population of some of the city's 
tenement districts, made up of Russian Jews, 

Syrians, Turks, Poles, Hungarians, Chinese, 

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The New Century Home Book 

Greeks, Italians, and various other nationali- 
ties. 

With a second day to spend in the city, a 
morning visit may be paid to the navy yard in 
Brooklyn, including a trip over the Brooklyn 
Bridge in a trolley car. For this trip a request 
for a permit to enter the yard should be sent 
in advance, addressed to the commandant of 
the yard. War vessels are nearly always at 
the yard, and visitors to them are shown every 
courtesy by officers and men on board. 

As a substitute for the navy yard visit one 
can go to Prospect Park, Brooklyn's splendid 
breathing ground, and a rival of Central Park 
in Manhattan. It includes the site of the 
fiercest struggle of the battle of Long Island. 
In the afternoon the visitor may go to Coney 
Island, New York's famous ocean beach resort, 
or to Greenwood Cemetery. 

If the visitor is fortunate enough to have a 

week at his disposal, let him go over the ground 

suggested for the one-day trip, but in a much 

more leisurely way. A sail may be taken to 

Glen Island one day, giving the visitor a view 

381 



The New Century Home Book 

of the city's public institutions on Blackwell's 
Island and Ward's Island, Hell Gate, and the 
entrance to Long Island Sound, and the Sound 
defenses of New York at Throgs Neck, Wil- 
lett's Point, and Fort Slocum. 

Another sail will take one through the Nar- 
rows and lower bay to Coney Island or Rock- 
away Beach, giving a view of Governor's Island, 
headquarters of the Department of the East of 
the United States Army; Fort Columbus, the 
Quarantine Station on Staten Island, and the 
islands in the lower bay where immigrants 
from infected foreign ports arc detained until 
all danger of their bringing disease into the 
city has passed ; and Forts Hamilton and 
Wadsworth, which, with high-power modern 
rifles mounted behind immense fortifications, 
guard the approach to New York from the sea. 

An afternoon may be well spent in the 

Metropolitan Museum of Art, and another half 

day in the Museum of Natural History. A day 

spent in Bronx Park and its fine zoological and 

botanical gardens will not be wasted. A visit 

to the Croton waterworks, one of the greatest 

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The New Century Home Book 

pieces of engineering skill of the century, is 
well worth while. The better part of a day 
may be enjoyed in a visit to the city's chari- 
table and correctional institutions on Black- 
well's Island, and the Tombs prison in Man- 
hattan, for which permits may be obtained at 
the office of the Department of Charities. 

Some of the immense ^^sky scrapers" of the 
city, such as the Park Eow Building, with its 
twenty-six stories, should be visited. If one 
comes from an inland town, he will find little 
in the whole city more interesting than a visit 
to one of the great ocean steamships lying at 
the wharves. Whatever one's tastes may be, 
tlie means to gratify them are always to be 

found in the nation's greatest city — New York. 

383 



The New Century Home Book 



3Bc0lnnlnfl9 of Ilblnoe 

T^IIE first newspaper advertisement was 
printed in 1G52. 

Air pumps were first made in 1050. 

The first almanacs were made by the ancient 
Saxons, who carved on sticks the courses of the 
moons of the wliole year, so that they could tell 
when the new moons, the full moons, and the 
changes would occur, niid when festival days 
would fall. The carved stick was called an 
"almond aght," and hence the naiiK- "almanac." 
The first recorded account of an almanac in 
England is in the "Yearbook" of Henry VI T. 
The first almanac printed was by George von 
Purback in 14G0. 

The General Court of Massachusetts issued 

the first American coins in 1G52. They were 

of silver, with "N. E." on one side and "VI." 

or "XII." on the other side, to denote the value 

of the coin in l*]nglish pence. 

The first money used by the American col- 

384 



The New Century Home Book 

onists was the wampum of the Indians, whicn 
consisted of shells ground to the size of kernels 
of corn and strung together. 

Silver dimes were first coined in 1796. 

Copper money was first coined in Rome in 
580 B. C. 

The first American copper cent was coined 
in New Haven, Conn., in 1787. 

Anaesthesia was discovered in 1844. 

The first arithmetical figures were carried 
into Europe by the Saracens in A. D. 994. 

The first cable dispatch across the Atlantic 
Ocean was sent in August, 1858. 

Backgammon was invented by the Chinese 
many centuries ago. The implements of the 
game were almost exactly like those now used. 

The first successful balloon ascent was made 
in 1783. 

Congress incorporated the first national bank 

in the United States in December, 1781, The 

first regular bank was established in Venice in 

1157. The Bank of Genoa was founded in 

1401, the Bank of Amsterdam in 1609, and the 

Bank of England in 1694. 
(25) 385 



The New Century Home Book 

The use of barber poles as signs grew out of 
the fact that in the olden time barbers acted as 
surgeons and performed the bleeding and cup- 
ping then so much employed as a cure for 
disease. The bleeding was generally done on 
the arm, and the patient grasped a small pole 
to hold his arm rigid for the operation. The 
barber usually kept the pole in his window. 

Bayonets take their name from Bayonne, 
where they were invented in 1G70. They were 
first used in fighting at the battle of Turin in 
1003. 

The first successful steamboat was built in 
1782 by the Marquis de Jouffroy. It plied on 
the Saone River for a time, but had too little 
power. Eobert Fulton built the first entirely 
successful steamboat, the Clermont, which 
made a trip from New York up the Hudson 
River to Albany in 1807. The first iron steam- 
ship was built in 1830, and eight years later 
two steamships crossed the ocean from England 
to America. 

Ships were first "copper-bottomed" in 1783. 

The first lifeboat was built in 1802. 

386 



The New Century Home Book 

The earliest record of the burning of heretics 
in England is dated 1401. 

When all men carried swords buttons were 
put on the back of the coat to support the 
sword-belt. Hence the buttons still found on 
the backs of men's coats, for which there is not 
the slightest use. Equally useless buttons on 
the sleeves of modern coats are said to owe their 
origin to Frederick the Great. He found his 
soldiers in the habit of wiping the perspiration 
from their faces with their sleeves, thus soiling 
the garments. He had rows of buttons fastened 
to the sleeves to prevent this habit. 

Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar 
in B. C. 46, when he corrected errors in the 
previous Roman calendar and added ten days 
to each year, making the year 365 days, with an 
extra day every fourth year. The Julian calen- 
dar failed to account for about eleven minutes 
a year. In A. D. 1583 this uncomputed time 
had reached ten days, and Pope Gregory XIII 
corrected the error by ordering the ten days to 
be dropped on the 5th of October, that day 

being for that year reckoned as the 15th of 

387 



The New Century Home Book 

October. Pope Gregory also ordained that 
every hundredth year not divisible by 400 
without a remainder should not be reckoned a 
leap year. By this arrangement it will take 
about five thousand years for the difference 
beween the civil and the natural year to amount 
to one day. The Gregorian calendar is now in 
universal use. 

The first camp meeting was held near Rus- 
sellville, Ky., in 1799. It was led by John 
McGee, a Methodist clergyman, and his brother, 
William McGee, a Presbyterian minister. 

Cannons were first used at the siege of 
Algeciras in 1342. 

Great Britain's first census was taken in 
1801. 

Cherry trees were introduced into Britain 
from Pontus about A. D. 50. 

The origin of chess is disputed. Some 
authorities say it was played in India 5,000 
years ago. Others declare it originated with 
the Chinese B. C. 1120. 

Chimneys were introduced into Rome from 

Padua in 1368. 

388 



The New Century Home Book 

Chocolate was first drank in England in 
1520. 

Christmas was first celebrated in A. D. 98. 

Christianity was first preached in Britain in 
A. D. 178. 

Chronometers were first made in 1665. 

William Harvey discovered the circulation 
of the blood in 1616. 

The first clock was made in England in 1568. 

Coaches were first used in England in 1569. 

Coffee was first known in Abyssinia, whence 
it was carried into Arabia at an unknown date. 
The first record of its use in Arabia is dated 
1587. It was not introduced into England 
until 1641, and into France until 1714. 

The oldest college is Oxford University, 
founded by King Alfred in A. D. 872. Har- 
vard University is the oldest American college, 
having been founded in 1636. The first town 
school in America was opened in Hartford, 
Conn., before 1642. The first legislation es- 
tablishing common schools in America was 
passed by the Massachusetts Legislature in 

1645. Kappa Alpha is the oldest Greek letter 

889 



The New Century Home Book 

college fraternity in America. It was estab- 
lished in Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., 
in 1825. 

The first comedy, as well as the first traged}^ 
was played in Athens in B. C. 562. Plays were 
first acted in Rome in B. C. 239. 

The first compass was used in France in 
1150. The Chinese are said to have used the 
loadstone earlier than this. 

Cooking schools started in this country in 
Boston, Mass., in 1879. 

The first copperplate print was made in 1450. 

The first cotton gin was made in 1795. 

The power loom was invented in 1785, the 
spinning jenny in 17G7, and the spinning 
frame in 1769. 

The date of the first Crusade was 1095. 

Cutlery was first manufactured in the United 
States in 1834. 

Speusippus, a Greek philosopher, who lived 
in B. C. 350, wrote the first cyclopedia. 

The degree of "Doctor" was first conferred 

in Bologna in 1130, and in England in 1209.. 

Dials, maps, and globes are the inventions 

390 



The New Century Home Book 

of Anaximander, who lived in the sixth century 
B. C. Bartholomew Columbus carried them 
into England in 1489. 

The first dictionary of modern languages 
was published in 1612. The first French dic- 
tionary was published in 1694. 

England's House of Commons was organized 
in 1295. 

The first envelope was used in 1839. 

Fire engines were invented in 1663. The 
first steam fire engine was built in 1830. 

The first American flag authorized by Con- 
gress consisted of thirteen stripes, alternate red 
and white, with thirteen white stars in the blue 
field. The Union flag had been unfurled over 
the American camp in Cambridge on New 
Year's Day, 1776. The resolution indorsing 
it was adopted by Congress on June 14, 1777. 
In 1818 Congress decreed that a star should be 
added to the flag for every State admitted to 
the Union. 

Two-tined forks were first made in England 

in 1608. Three-pronged forks were not made 

until 1750, and silver forks were unknown be- 

391 



The New Century Home Book 

fore 1814. Dainty Queen Elizabeth and all 
before her time used their fingers for forks. 

Gas was first used for lighting purposes in 
1792. It was introduced into New York in 
1827. London's streets were first lighted with 
gas in 1814. 

Glass was made in Egypt more than three 
thousand years ago. Glass windows first ap- 
peared in England in the eighth century. 
Glass mirrors were first made in the thirteenth 
century. The first glass factory in this coun- 
try was established in 1780. 

Gold was first discovered in California in 
1848. 

Gunpowder was known to the Chinese as 
early as the ninth century. Its first use in fire- 
arms is believed to have been in 1313. Muskets 
were in use in 1370. Pistols were not invented 
before 1544. 

John Hetherington, a London haberdasher, 

wore the first high silk hat in January, 1797. 

His appearance in the streets with the strange 

headgear caused a riot, during which several 

women fainted. 

392 



The New Century Home Book 

The Koman goddess of faith and honesty 
was Fides, and her symbol was two right hands 
joined, or two figures clasping each other's 
right hand. This led the Eomans to take each 
other by the right hand when making an agree- 
ment, in token that they would adhere to the 
contract. From this grew the hand-shaking of 
to-day. 

Hops were first cultivated in Germany in the 
ninth century. 

The first iron horseshoes were made in A. D. 
481. 

The first insurance policy on ships and 
merchandise was written in A. D. 43. 

Kerosene was first used for lighting in 1826. 

"When lead pencils were invented is uncer- 
tain, but it is believed they were first used in 
1565. 

The first library of which there is any record 

was founded in Memphis by the Egyptian 

King Osymandyas, in the twelfth dynasty. Its 

works were of unknown antiquity, and it was 

destroyed by the Persians. Greece's first library 

was established in Athens by Pisistratus, about 

393 



The New Century Home Book 

B. C. 527. The first library in Rome was 
founded by Paulus .^milius, B. C. 167. The 
most celebrated ancient library was founded 
in Alexandria in B. C. 290. It contained 700,- 
000 volumes. The first public library of New 
York was established in 1730. Its books were 
a gift to the city from the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. 

London was founded A. D. 50. 

Linen was first made in England in 1253. 

The first life insurance company in the 
United States was established in 1812. 

Locomotives were first made in the United 
States in 1829. 

Lucifer matches were first made in 1829. 

To Zacharias Jansens, of Holland, is given 
the credit for the invention of the compound 
microscope in 1590. 

The first practical motor car was built in 
1786, and was propelled by steam. 

Musical notes now employed were invented 
in 1330. 

Steel needles were introduced into England 

during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. 

394 



The New Centunr Home Book 

The first newspaper was published in Venice 
in 1630; the first in France in 1631; the first 
in England in 1655; and the first in America, 
in Boston, in 1690. The first daily newspaper 
appeared in 1702. The first religious news- 
paper in this country was the Herald of Gospel 
Liberty, published in Portsmouth, IST. H., in 
1808. 

The first omnibus was run in Paris in 1827. 
Omnibuses were introduced into Xew Tork in 
1830. 

Organs for church music were first intro- 
duced by Pope Yitalianus, about A. D. 670. 

The Chinese invented paper in B. C. 170. 

Pens were first made of quills in A. D. 635. 
Steel pens were made first in 1803. 

Photography was the simultaneous discovery 
of Daguerre in France and Talbot in England 
in 1839. 

Pins were first manufactured in the United 
States soon after the War of 1812. 

The renting of a house in Boston in 1639 for 

the receipt of letters to and from Europe was 

the beginning of the postal service in this coun- 

395 



The N&w Century Home Book 

try. The colony of New York established a 
monthly post between New York and Boston 
in 1672. A post office was opened in Philadel- 
phia in 1693. The first American postage 
stamps were issued by the government in 1847. 
They had been introduced in England in 1840 
by Rowland Hill, known as the "Father of the 
Penny Post." It is said the first purchaser of 
a United States stamp was Henry Shaw, who 
was in Postmaster General Cave Johnson's 
office when the first sheet of stamps was re- 
ceived from the printer, and wlio then bought 
a five-cent and ten-cent stamp, the two de- 
nominations then issued. 

Post offices were established in France in 
1464, in England in 1581, and in Germany in 
1641. Mail was first carried by stagecoach in 
England in 1785. 

Pneumatic tires for wheels were invented in 
1889. 

Potatoes were introduced into England and 
Ireland in 1586. 

Credit for the invention of the art of print- 
ing with movable type — the most valuable of 

396 



The New Century Home Book 

all human inventions — is claimed by the Dutch 
for Laurence Koster, between 1420 and 1426, 
and by the Germans for Johan Gansfleisch, of 
the Giitenberg family, about 1438. It was in- 
troduced into England in 1471. The first 
printing press in America was imported in 
1639. Stereotype printing was invented in 
1725. 

America's first railroad was laid in Quincy, 
Mass., in 1726. It was four miles long and 
was built to carry granite from the quarries. 
A coal road was constructed in 1827 at Mauch 
Chunk, Pa. The first railroad in England was 
laid in 1825, and ran from Darlington to 
Stockton. France's first railroad was built in 
1832. 

The first horse railroad was built in 1826. 

Eaising the hat when greeting a woman is a 
survival of the custom of knights in the olden 
time, who removed their helmets in the com- 
pany of women to signify that they regarded 
themselves as among friends. 

The first patent for a reaping machine was 

issued in England in 1799. 

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The New Century Home Book 

Fireproof safes were first patented in the 
United States in 1843. 

Saddles were first used in tlie fourth century. 
Stirrups were not used until the next century. 

The first sawmaker's anvil was brought to 
America in 1753. 

Elias Howe, an American, invented the sew- 
ing machine and took out the first patent for 
the invention in 1846. 

Shoe buckles were first worn in the seven- 
teenth century. 

Wooden shoe pegs were invented about 1818. 

The first silk dress made in New England 
was worn in 1750. 

Spectacles were invented in 1280. 

The first steam engine in America was 
brought from England in 1753. 

The first total abstinence society was founded 
in 1809. America's first temperance society 
was organized in Saratoga County, N. Y., in 
1808. 

The first society exclusively for circulating 

the Scriptures was the British and Foreign 

Bible Society, organized in 18Q4, 

39a 



The New Century Home Book 

The first society for the promotion of Chris- 
tian knowledge was founded in 1698. 

Sulphuric acid was discovered about the 
middle of the fourteenth century. 

Tea was first used in England in 1656. 

The telegraph instrument was invented by 
S. F. B. Morse in 1835, but its utility was not 
demonstrated until 1844. 

Telescopes were first used in England about 

1608. 

Nicot introduced tobacco into France in 

1560. 

Tops were invented by the Chinese before B. 

C. 3000. 

The earliest record of a trial by jury is A. D. 

970. 

England's first turkeys were sent from 

America in 1620. 

The first turnpike in England was made in 
1663. 

Umbrellas were first made in the United 
States about 1800. They were of oiled ging- 
ham and very large. Jonas Hanway was the 

first man to carry an umbrella in the streets of 

399 



The New Century Home Book 

London. Dr. Jameson carried one in Glasgow 
in 1780. Before that umbrellas had been car- 
ried only by women. 

The first voyage around the globe was made 
in 1522. 

Violins were first made about the twelfth 
century. 

Watches were first made in Nuremberg early 
in the sixteenth century. The earliest known 
description of a watch was written by Johannes 
Coccianes in 1511. It then took a year to make 
a watch, and its value was about $1,500. 

Weaving was introduced into England in 
1330. 

The first screw wrench was made in 1835. 

Zinc was first described as a metal about 
1540. 

Zero, meaning "nothing," was first used as a 

thermometer mark by Fahrenheit in 1795. lie 

had put snow and ice together when a boy and 

believed he had found the lowest degree of 

temperature, and he then called it zero. 

400 



FEB 16 1901 



